Things Fall Apart: Chapter Eight: Juno's First Day

Juno

Whatever Asteria told you, I can assure you that school is nothing like that for the rest of us plebeians. No rumor that goes through Asteria’s group is ever really gone which makes it extremely difficult for people like me.

“Just because I can’t see them doesn’t mean I can’t hear them,” I mutter to Emma as we pass, by the sound of it, some of Asteria’s cohorts pitching ideas as to how I became blind. No human in this school seems to believe that I was born blind, which is what our family has told everyone. Anyway, it’s not important.

“Just ignore them, Juno,” Emma sighs. She maneuvers me around a row of freshmen backpacks. “The freshies just can’t learn how to keep track of their stuff, can they?” I shrug. We have what’s called an Honor Code at our school; if you leave something lying around, nobody can steal it without going before an Honor Tribunal. I like it; I know without a doubt nobody is trying to steal from a blind girl; at least, as far as I know, nobody would.

“I don’t remember class being such a long walk,” I complain as Emma leads me out of the circular building and into the Student Center. Emma is the only one to whom I feel I can complain. My family has enough on their plate with Asteria’s addiction; I’m already a burden with my disability. There’s no reason for me to burden them with my petty complaints. But Emma, on the other hand...

“It’s just another flight of stairs and then we’re there,” she promises.

“Can we take the elevator today?” I’m not feeling stairs today.

“Sure!” Emma is never not happy to take the elevator. She says it makes her feel special. I think it just draws more attention to the fact that I have difficulty with stairs. Which I don’t like. At all.

“Oh, hey, Ben,” pipes Emma. There’s another human being in the elevator, apparently. “What happened to your leg?” Apparently his leg is injured.

“I had a party last weekend,” says Ben James The Boy With Two Names. “It got a little out of hand.” He laughs, and I can almost feel Asteria’s breath on my shoulder saying, “He’s mine.” Ben James The Boy With Two Names is supposedly the most attractive boy in school, but I wouldn’t know, of course, which makes me a better judge of character than Asteria. And I can say with confidence that her taste in men is less than prudent.

“Sounds intense,” I say, trying to sound intelligent about a field that is more Asteria’s forté than my own. Ben James The Boy With Two Names’ shirt ruffles softly, which means he shrugs. I wait for his intake of breath when he realizes I can’t see his shrug. There it is.

“Oh,” he says. Yeah, I think. “Uh, yeah, it was. Your brother and sister were there, Juno.” I toss my head.

“I know.”

“They had a good time.”

“Clearly.”

“Juno,” Emma says softly. Reproachfully. I know I should be nicer but I find it difficult to be civil to anyone who only likes Asteria for her looks. Which is especially infuriating since I look just like her.

“Did I say something...?”

“No, no,” Emma says. Damage control. “Juno’s just in a bad mood.”

“Why?”

Why? I think. Maybe because I’m freaking blind you blithering idiot.

“Oh, just first day of school cranky,” says Emma. The elevator finally, blessedly stops.

“Let’s go, Emma,” I say, leading the way for once.

“See you later, Ben!” Ben calls something back but I ignore it. I can feel Emma’s annoyance with me. She doesn’t understand incivility.

“Would it really kill you to be nice to Ben?” she asks, stopping me so I can find the door of the classroom.

“Just about,” I say, feeling for the doorjamb. I work my way through the doorway and feel for a seat, which Emma helps me into.

“Good morning, class,” says Mr. Leicester. That’s pronounced like Lester, mind you. He’s British, so he can’t understand the American obsession with pronouncing his name like lice-ester. Poor man.

“Welcome to AP Micro Economics. Kelly, would you please pass these out?” Kelly Lamb, a girl who never talks but is somehow known by all the teachers, passes out the syllabi for the course. I get a special one printed in Braille. Whoohoo. If only I could read Braille.

I remember having to learn. I was eleven, a year after the accident, when my parents decided they couldn’t keep reading aloud to me. They bought a bunch of books in Braille, a Braille alphabet, a Braille tutor, I mean the whole nine yards. But I just couldn’t get the hang of it. I remembered too well how letters were supposed to look to learn a whole new language. I loathed Braille so much, I started picking the little bumps off the pages, hiding my books, even burning one with the help of Asteria’s pyromania. My parents gave up after seven months. So now I just have an Audio Reader on my laptop. I scan the paper, and it reads it to me. I have developed an intense love of technology since I went blind. It’s quite nice, if you ask me. Maybe one day they’ll use it to, oh I don’t know, find a cure to blindness. But for now, I’ll stick to my Audio Reader and my helpers.

Just after the bell rings, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I take it out and give it to Emma to read.

“Asteria needs to talk to you next period,” Emma informs me. I nod, take up my walking stick, and allow her to lead me to my next and best class: English.