LIB

Chapter 29

For the next couple of weeks, I threw myself into my physical therapy. I slowly started gaining control of my legs again, but it was a very slow process. The day came for Blake and I to return to school, and I was more then a little nervous.

            “I don’t know if I can do this,” I said as we sat in Jared’s truck outside of the school.

            “Yes you can,” Jared said. “You’ve never let what people think stop you before and you’re not going to let them now.”

            I made a face. “Sometimes it’s a pain when people have so much confidence in you,” I replied.

            “Look on the bright side, Hales. If people piss you off, you can run over their toes with your wheelchair,” Blake said helpfully.

            “I’m not as mean as you,” I said. “Although that does sound like a good idea,” I added.

            Blake opened his door. “Come on, we’ll be late if we don’t get our butts in gear.”

            Jared got out and grabbed my wheelchair from the back of the truck. He unfolded it while Blake got out and then carefully picked me up. With my guidance, he set me in my chair gently. I strapped myself in and he moved around to grab the handles.

            “I’ll pick you two up after school,” Jared said. “Have fun.”

            “Oh yeah, this is going to be a laugh a minute,” I said dryly.

            “Well, at least you still have your sarcasm intact,” Jared muttered as he climbed back into his truck. “See you later.”

            I watched as he drove off and then gave a resigned sigh. “Okay, let’s get this over with. I’ll steer so we don’t run into anyone. You just hold onto the handles, okay?” I asked as I turned my head to look at Blake.

            He pouted a little. “You ruin all my fun,” he complained.

            I grinned and shook my head at him. “If you weren’t so sadistic, I wouldn’t ruin anything,” I retorted, starting to wheel myself forward up the path to the front doors.

            Blake walked behind me, hanging onto the handles. “Can we at least run over one persons toes?” he asked.

            “Maybe if you’re really good,” I replied.

            He seemed satisfied with that and continued to follow along behind me. When we got to the doors, he went ahead of me to open them and I pushed myself through. Then he grabbed the handles again and we went down the hallway.

            People did turn to look at us, but to my surprise, they were all smiling. A few people even called out greetings, which I definitely hadn’t expected. When we got to my locker, my eyes nearly popped out of my head. “Whoa,” I said.

            “What?”

            We stopped in front of the locker and I looked at it in amazement. “There’s a huge paper attached to the locker door and people have written messages on it.” I leaned a little closer. “Give me your hand.”

            Blake did as I asked and I put his hand on a certain spot of the paper. I saw his mouth drop open in shock. “There’s Braille on here as well?”

            “Yeah, it looks like it’s in a few spots. All the messages pretty much say get better soon or something along those lines.” I sat back again, a little overwhelmed. “I can’t believe people did this,” I murmured.