Broken And Proud Of It

It's no big deal, nobody will find out, it's been years, nobody will even remember me. I begin walking into this giant school, that's painted red, and I feel so out of place, like a bright green alien from another planet, even though aliens wouldn't have red hair, I think. All I have to do is walk to the office, without getting noticed. I'm rushing through the hall, I feel like I'm almost running. I walk into the counseling office and head straight for the tenth grade counselor's room. I hear voices talking in the room as I knock. I open the door and walk into his office to find him talking to the principle, but the second they see me they silence.

I'm sitting down, listening to him ramble on about all of the things that I need to know. He just seems so awkward and nervous, probably because he knows all about my leg. He finishes explaining everything, hands me my schedule, locker combination, and sends me on my way. I have a feeling it's because he doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't hurt or affend me about my leg.

I'm in the hallway wandering around, trying to find my locker. I see my locker at the end of the hall, but a bunch of kids are at their lockers, that are right near it. I walk down the hall to my locker, trying to avoid the students. I keep thinking that everyone will notice my leg, though I was assured that they wouldn't. I get to my locker and try to open it, but I can't get the lock to open.

"It's Lucy, right?" this girl with bright green eyes says behind me, totally startling me.

"Excuse me?" I ask, a little bit confused.

"You're Lucy, we went to elementary school together, I knew I recognized that red hair. I'm Maddi, it's nice to see you again." Maddi says to me, but I still don't remember her. "Oh," she says, noticing I can't open my lock, "try turning the lock three times before entering the combination." Her advice is really good, because just then I pull my lock open.

"Thanks for the tip." I tell Maddi, grateful for the tip. As I'm putting away my bag and coat a boy walks up, and puts his arm around Maddi's shoulder, and he even has the same eyes as her.

"What's up?" he asks Maddi.

"You remember Lucy? Well she's back." she tells the boy, and now she tells me, "This is my brother, Mark, you remember, we were all in elementary school together, you know, before you left. Ooh, what's that?" she says, reaching for my backpack. She noticed my back up leg, people can't find out, they'll treat me like I'm broken, or at the very least, that I'm made out of glass.

"It's my, uh-" I say before she cuts me off, and notices what it really is.

"You have a prosthetic?" Mark says to me, really shocked. So I have to go through the whole story of me getting cancer, and my leg getting amputated, to save my life. I spent every last minute until the bell rang, and they dragged me off to P.E. class asking them not to tell anyone. The way people look at me, or treat me, when they know about my leg, I can't go through that again. Right before we went into our respective locker rooms they luckily agreed to keep my secret.

When we all got changed for gym class we went upstairs. Upstairs the teachers tells us that we're starting out the football unit, so today we're just playing flag football, which I love. We all walk outside onto this big green field, team up, and start playing. We're a few minutes into the game, and I really impress my other teammates with how good I am at flag football.

"How, how are you so good, I mean, with your leg?" Mark asks me, trying not to be heard by the other kids, or affend me.

"I really like football, and it's one of the sports I can play with my leg." I reply joking around. We finish off the game and start walking inside. As we're walking inside, one of the boys in our class is goofing off, and he falls and lands on me. I go tumbling over, and my prosthetic breaks. Everyone starts freaking out, because they don't know that my real leg didn't break, while Maddi and Mark come over to help me up.

"Are you okay?" Maddi asks.

"I'm fine, but can you please go get my extra leg from my locker?" I ask Maddi. This is my worst fear, now everybody knows. They're going to treat me differently now, and not a good differently.

Maddi comes to the nurse's office with my other leg, and shows me the way to my Spanish class, and everyone keeps staring at me in the hallway. I make it through Spanish class trying to ignore all of the looks, it's just not easy to be treated like that. The bell rings at the end of class, and all I want to do is leave.

"Let me help you with that." some random student says to me as he reaches to pick up my stuff. I put my hand out to stop him, and pick up my stuff, but he says, "I really got it, I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"Seriously? I'm not made of glass, and I'm proud of who I am!" I tell the class, pretty irritated, as I grab my stuff. I walk out of class, and I'm not worried about what people will think of me anymore, my leg is part of me, even if it isn't actually part of me. I walk out of school with a sense of freedom I haven't had in some time.