Flashbacks and projects

Sophia's POV

Walking slowly, counting my steps, feeling the vibration of the earth beneath my feet. I know the school now. I know how many steps it takes to get from one door to the next, how many steps to each corner. You get used to it after many, many years in the same school.

'Soph!' I hear over the sounds of the busy hall. It's my best friend, Jackson. He can't walk, he's been in a wheelchair all his life. His wheels squeak as I feel him stop in front of me.

'Hi, Jac!' I reply. I lose the count of steps in my head. I don't know where I am except for the vibration frequency that constantly pulses through my feet. I walk barefoot, even in winter. I've gotten used to it.

Jac sighs, 'You want a lift?'

'I thought you'd never ask!'

When I was still getting used to the counts I would train by going down the hall, slowly feeling my way around. If I fell, he would be there to help me up. Some days that I didn't remember he would carefully help me onto his chair and take me with him. He was sweet like that. A true best friend.

I slowly held my hand out for him to guide me onto the chair. He was strong in his upper body. I didn't know how he looked, but I could feel his firm touch. It felt like he was protecting me, like he could have fought for and with me if we weren't like this... if we weren't disabled.

He took me to my class and headed off to his. I gave a crooked smile, the one thing I remember seeing. My mother's smile.

She smiled at me and out me in bed the night before everything changed. It wasn't very different from my sight. I didn't have perfect vision before but it didn't effect me as I was born with the mutation.

The morning when I woke up blind was terrifying. I didn't have any sight except for the lights. The brighter parts. The patterns they created, the only thing keeping me from going insane. I yelled. Where was my vision. No color, no clouds on my light blue walls, no windows with bright scenery outside.

The moment taunted me for my entire life. The moment I felt hopeless, like the bright light of excitement and joy was ripped out from my soul.

I sat in my chair at my desk. Our classes never change, we need to get used to the position to get used to the steps and vibration. We never got taught like most kids. We were only taught how to read in brail and how to feel our surroundings. We talked about feelings a lot. There isn't much moral in a blind kid's life.

There are only four other kids in my class. Without visual aids learning is much harder so we need the extra attention. Today we had a project due. It was called the verbal imagination project.

Once a term we would think of something random and try and imagine either how it would look or a story. I loved imagining stories.

Carli went up first. She was telling a story. It was a scary story about hearing rustling sounds and being captured. I wasn't really listening, my mind was thinking about the thirteen years I had spent just trying to remember what a smile looks like.

Next up was Jules. She described what she imagined a calidoscope pattern would look. It was hard to remember color. I remember blue white and pink. You can't really do much imagining with three colors.

I lost focus. I didn't listen to Lucas, I didn't even know what his topic was. I completely drifted. Until it was my turn. I always told a story.

It all starts with a girl who loves to read, draw and watch movies with her friends. She sees a muscular jock from across the street when walking home. They  walk into each other the next weekend at the park. They start talking and they fall in love. They fight about the guy always hanging out with the cheerleaders. He stops talking to them and sweeps her off her feet on the day of the school dance.

After my story Alex finished off. He was describing his visualization of a train trip. He lost his sight late compared to some of us. He told us his sight faded for years but he only lost it completely at age ten. The bell went for lunch time, meaning I could talk to Jackson again.