Wheelchair Accessible

Part Nineteen

"No," she shook her head, but then paused. "Well, maybe. Eventually. I don't know." She rubbed a hand over her face and started over again. "Okay, so a while ago a teacher from my school, Mr. Lander... you don't know him. I mean, obviously you don't know him. What am I saying? Anyway." She took a deep breath. "Mr. Lander offered me a chance to do a sort of mentorship program with other kids from the surrounding communities with disabilities. I don't totally know what it's all about, but he said I could play basketball with them, and I mean, how could I say no to that? And..." she paused, eyebrows pulling together. "What do you think?"

My eyes were wide. "What do I think? Shawna... that's so cool."

Her expression lifted immediately, "You think so?"

"Duh. Shawna. Dude. That's pretty much the perfect job for you. You get to boss around kids all day."

Her jaw draw dropped. "You make me sound like a monster!"

"Well, I'm just speaking from my experience as your student when you were teaching me to play basketball in a wheelchair. That's all."

"That's only because it was you, and I flirt like a sixth-grader. I'm an excellent teacher for literally everyone else."

"I'll believe it when I see it.

 "I guess you will," she squinted her eyes at me. But after a moment reached over and hooked her little finger with mine. "Are you sure you're okay with it?"

I frowned. "What? Of course. Shawna... you don't have to, you know, ask me for... permission to do things like that. I'm not that kind of guy."

"I wasn't asking for permission," she assured me with a little smile. "I just meant that you'd be okay with not... travelling the world, like we said?"

So, that's where all this was coming from. 

I let out a huff and slid myself over so that I was sitting close enough to wrap an arm around her and pull her into my side. "Hey, listen." She peeked up at me, that nervous look on her face again. "Travelling the world would be awesome, and we're totally going to do it... one day. But if this is where you feel like you're meant to be, if this program is a place where you feel you'll share your gifts with the world... you gotta do it, right?"

She nestled her head onto my shoulder, nodding a couple of times.

"We are going to have our entire lives to do whatever the heck we want together," I promised. "So do this now, and we'll worry about the rest later."

"You're sure?"

"One billion percent."

She hummed contentedly. "You're pretty smart, you know that?"

                "Yeah. You didn't realize you were getting good looks and brains when you fell for me, did you?" I teased, resting my head on top of hers.

                "I really wasn't expecting either, to be honest."

                "Jerk."

                She giggled, "I'm just kidding Marky. You know you're cute."

                "Ha ha."

                "You are!"

                "Whatever. Give me my present so I can get out of here."

                She sat up so quickly that she hit my chin on the way up. "Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that." Placing her hands neatly in her lap she waited as I carefully examined the envelope, pretending to take in every inch of it. Her eyes narrowed, "Okay, hurry up or I'm taking it back."