e s p o i r

28. Eudaimonia

Heck, I was a creep.

I cried at everything. Every. Thing. Ever. Commonly, I would be found curled in a corner, sobbing myself to death because that girl Lisa chewed the pen I had lent her. Trust me, I'd be secretly planning to murder her without having the courage to even roll my eyes at her on confrontation.

But the most noted, I couldn't read.

Being dyslexic was a nightmare, especially when you're forcefully sent to a school that is unaware of your condition and just considers you a 'slow-learner', My ears would hurt to hear my teacher always saying, "She just needs to take her time." And your parents are too busy to notice that their darned child isn't dumb, she's dyslexic. She needs special attention. She needs treatment.

Don't freak out, I survived that. And after countless nights of praying for my 'guardian Angel', Ash came. I thought I'd never see him again after that forest scene but there he was, on the first day of my new elementary school, sitting right behind me.

Surprisingly, I hadn't noticed his existence until he poked me, sitting right behind me. A reason for that would be the fact that I was used to of keeping my head very low, eyes glued at ground. I was always a case of social anxiety.

But why he poked me was even more interesting. Everyone was done with their part of reading. Yes, the same loud reading to the entire class of that certain paragraph of textbook for which you used to count the kids in the row to know which one was on your turn. Yes, that.

The thing was, I couldn't even read the first line.

Cold sweat broke on my face as I took shaky breaths, shifting from one foot to another, anxiously trying to figure out if it was 'P' or 'D'. Soon, the other kids began to giggle, leaving me in tears that glued my blonde strands to my face. Ms.Garner, my teacher, told me to sit down after an awful while and asked another kid to read the paragraph I was unable to read, he readily began to read it out.

That's when Ash poked me, sitting right behind me. I noticed he was the only one not laughing, but rather angered by the kids who were laughing at me. I was surprised to see him again, and I bet he wasn't surprised to see me crying again. He'd seen it already and we had met only twice.

"I have peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch." He blankly said, earning a confused look from me in return.

What I did not know was that he was saying out the sentence I was supposed to read but couldn't.

I normally did not talk back to anyone at school but with Ash, I naturally felt comfortable. Forcing a smile which was very infrequent - coming from me, I managed to stutter, "R - Really?"

I believe his reaction to my cluelessness was hilarious and heart-melting at the same time. He smoothly handled the situation by returning the smile, "Yeah, wanna share with me?"

Fortunately, he did have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And that day, he befriended a creep.

The thing was that from that day - someone paid attention to me. Something that not even my parents did for me. I mean, come on, he brought extra sandwiches for me when my parents handed me a granola bar. He understood my condition. When I warned him that I was a creep who couldn't even read, all he said was, "Don't worry, I'll teach you. I always wanted to be a teacher."

He taught me different words through different activities, like sometimes he'd write an alphabet on the sand while building sandcastles and ask me what it was, the alphabets turned into words and eventually a sentence until I became the one writing it.

He would read me stories of princesses when most guys would puke even at its mention. Most notable of all he taught me the difference between 'b' and 'd'. He helped me slowly until I caught up with the rest of the class. He always told me it was nothing. To me, it was everything.