Rain

Chapter 4

please excuse mistakes

Rain shifted in her seat as she tried to get comfortable in her blue plastic and metal seat. Everytime she moved, her wooden desk moved with her due to one of its legs missing a flat bottom knob. Kids in her class would look at her in annoyance at the noise she was making while Katy taught the class.

" Class eyes up here, please" Katy spoke gaining back the attention of the young minds.

Rain apologized softly, understanding that her movements was a distraction. She couldn't get comfortable because her bottom and back were on fire from the constant blows from Uncle Tom's belt. She spent most of her night awake going over the test and assignments, she failed with Uncle Tom. He wasn't happy about her progress report. He saw it as mere disrespect to him, her former homeschool teacher. He taught her everything, she knows up until this point. He couldn't believe the grades she brought home, especially since she passed the state exams that she had to take to evaluate her homeschooling without a problem. What he didn't understand that he was always around when she tested, daring her to miss a question. Last night, if she answered the question wrong or didn't give a good explanation to his liking, he beat her.

" You guys are doing good, but I know you can do better at persuading me to buy this product." Katy held up a bottle a lotion that she got out of her purse. She was trying to help her students come up with reasons she should buy that particular lotion.

" Remember when you are writing a persuasive essay, you have to convince your audience to have one point of view. In this case, you are trying to convince me that this product of lotion is better than other brands. Sure, it's easy to say it cost less than other brands, but let's take a step further." Katy explained as she walked the floor.

She used exercises like this to get the students accustomed to gathering reasons. The next step in their writing compositions is to learn how to write a argumentative essay. Persuasive writing and Argumentative writing are very similar and often get confused. In a persuasive essay, your trying to get the audience to agree or get them on your side, while an argumentative essay argues your point of view as a goal for someone to consider your opinion as well acknowledging that there are other viewpoints.

Katy looked over at a raised hand. "Yes, Keisha."

" I can say it's better for your skin because it has vitamins and minerals that protects you from the sun" She answered.

" Yes, very good. Everybody say oh yeah" Katy hyped up.

" Oh Yeah."

Rain once again shifted in her seat gaining the attention of Katy.

" Kiddos, talk amongst yourselves and come up with more. I'll allow you to use your phones just this once."

While the class began to discuss more reasons Katy grabbed an eraser off her desk and one of her many scarves then made her way to Rain's desk. Rain zoned in on Katy watching her walk towards her. It made Rain nervous.

" Here, lets try this."

Katy got into a squat and placed the eraser under one of the desk's legs making the table even. She then sat up straight and began folding her scarf.

" Is there a reason why you're moving around like you have ants in your pants?" Katy giggled. She already figured that Rain's bottom or back must have been bothering her. Hence why she brought over her scarf.

" I'm a little uncomfortable." Rain said softly looking down at her fingers then back up at her. Uncle Tom couldn't stand when Rain looked down when she is speaking. He always wanted her to look him in the eyes. She never could.

Katy looked down at Rain. " Hmm"

" Bad mattress" Rain lied.

Katy took her folded scarf and place it gently behind Rain. Rain instantly felt better now that the hard plastic wasn't rubbing against her back.

Katy gave Rain a small smile before bringing her attention to another student.

_______

Rain POV (First Person)

I don't know what is wrong with me. Katy figured out my plan to memorize the reading she wanted me to read and now I'm faced with a new reading assignment just for me. I usually like to read ahead so  I won't mess up. 

" Read the first paragraph for me."

I look at the passage before me and all I see is letters. Letters that I can hardly recognize. They were as jumbled as alphabet soup. I was definitely having a hard time piecing words together.

"Rain, are you okay? Can you read it?" Katy asked softly.

I glanced up at her slightly before looking back down. Her stare was intense and intimidating. I can read. I just know I can. Uncle Tom and I always spent time reading hours on end, to no fail. It was like he was drilling me with words by making me spell words backwards and forwards and if I didn't I got punished. I shuddered at the memory of me having to kneel in rice because I tripped up on a word while reading a passage from one of Abraham Lincoln's speeches. I memorized that one too make sure I got it right. 

" I can read" I spoke barely above a whisper as I was trying to convince myself. 

" Let's take one sentence at a time. Word by word." Katy reached a across the desk with a pencil in her hand. She pointed to the first word with the end of her pencil, causing me to zero in on it. 

"Aa " I begin sounding out. 

" The word starts with an M, sweetie. It's a name." Katy pointed out, causing me to furrow my eyebrows in confusion. " Let's try something different for a second." 

Katy grabbed her many white board and began writing. She then placed the whiteboard in front of me, showcasing the letter M. " That's an M." I stated confidently.

" Good." she quietly praised. She added a few more letters, making a word. " Ma...Maria?" I questioned. 

" Good sweetie." She sweetly reached over and gave my arm soft squeeze. I blinked nervously as a felt heavy lump in my throat. " tell me what's different between this maria and this maria, What do you see?"

" The two a's are flipped and the i is upside down."

" Okay, what do you see when you look at the other words on these page?"

I sat back in my seat feeling a headache brewing. " I don't know everything is all jumbled. Is there something wrong with me?" I asked as tears escape my eyes. All I could think about is what Uncle Tom would do to me if he found out this.

" Oh no sweetie, nothing is wrong with you. I believe you have a reading disability called Dyslexia. People who are dyslexic have problems with identifying speech and language when it comes to words. Some people with Dyslexia can't tell the difference between certain letters like M and W or O, E, and C. It can affect reading comprehension, spelling, math, and being able to read fluently out loud. It's very common condition." Katy explained as she gave my hand a squeeze for comfort. She handed me a tissue as I continued to cry softly.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Rain." She repeated. " You learn differently that's all. I'm certain that with your hands on learning experience with homeschooling, it was easy to miss. Lucky for you, I know how to teach you." 

I wiped my eyes with my free hand, not daring to look up at her. I thought about all the times I would mess up and Uncle Tom thought I was playing around or being disrespectful towards him but all this time I had a learning disability. 

" Am I stupid?" I found myself asking. I desperately needed to be smart.

" You are far from stupid Rain." She said sternly. " Don't you ever say that about yourself again. Okay? We will you get you back on track, I promise."

For the rest of the lunch period, we worked on small word phonics that could be in a sentence together. It was strange going back to the basics but I understood I had to break the cycle of trying to memorize passages in order to learn the proper way. Katy even shared her lunch with me even though I protested. As nice of a person she is, I know everyone has a bad side, so I hope I never have to see it.