All Four Of Me

Chapter 28

Both Nathan and Will seem taken aback by my sudden apology, almost as if they didn't believe they were going to get one in the first place, but I don't blame them. I was in a mood like no other the last time I spoke to them and although I feel like I had the right to be as pissed off as I was, I still could have handled the situation better.

"Thank you for your apology, Kenzie. I understand that this is a horrible situation for you to be stuck in, but I hope that we can all discuss this without letting our frustration get in the way of us solving the real problem." Will responds with genuine appreciation.

"I want that too, but I can't promise you that I'm not going to get upset if the outcome of this conversation is as bad as the one you had with my teachers this afternoon." That's not unreasonable, right?

"We're on team Kenzie here. We want what's best for you, but we also want to make sure that whatever option we decide to go with is the one that is going to have the least dramatic impact on your life and your plans for the future." Will nods in understanding, not at all put out by my declaration.

"This is a big decision and I'm going to be completely honest with you when I say that I personally don't agree with what your school has proposed as their recommendation. With that said, it is obvious that you are still at a lower level than your peers and it is going to be very difficult to convince your principal, or anybody else, to allow you to continue on the way you have been." He adds seriously while holding his hands out as if he is weighing up the options.

"So, as you can already tell, we have a bit of a dilemma on our hands and we want to know what you think we can do to try and find a solution that will make everybody happy." Nathan agrees with Will while folding his hands on the table top in front of him.

"Was there anything at all in the information package Mr Greene emailed through that can even be considered reasonable under the circumstances?"

"Apart from them making an application for you to have a full-time teachers aid in the classroom, everything just pointed towards enrolling you in their life skills program or repeating the extra grades. They also suggested you undertake a common achievement test to screen you for any learning disabilities, but from what I understand your issues stem from a history of neglect when it comes to your basic literacy skills rather than a developmental delay." Will answers openly, even scrunching his face into a weird half grimace when he mentions the disability screening test.

At least he knows that my reading difficulties aren't just another disorder to add to the list of things wrong with me, and that I am capable of learning just like anybody else. The school must think that I am some kind of invalid to be making these suggestions, but it makes me feel a bit better that Nathan, Chris and Will believe in my abilities to learn the skills I lack now, sometime in the near future.

"I don't need an aid, I just need all of my learning content to be in audio format." Problem solved, or at least one of them, anyway. I would still need some help trying to write out my answers properly, but if you ask me it is still a hell of a lot better than what I am facing now.

"You learn everything through audio clips?" Chris asks sounding slightly surprised by my admission.

"Yeah, why do you think I always ask to borrow Mitchell's laptop when I'm doing my homework? I use the voice command option to search for the topic I am looking for. Most of the websites I find have an audio option that reads the content out to me. Otherwise, I just search through videos on YouTube if the website I'm looking at doesn't have an audio option." I explain with a shrug, anybody else in my shoes would probably do the same.

"She's not wrong. My internet history is full of science videos and all sorts of different research." Mitchell says from the entrance to the kitchen, causing me to turn in my seat so that I can see him.