Content note: follows on from the themes of the last chapter, including running away and depictions of ableism
It's a beautiful morning.
The social service worker guides Katie and Lucie towards the school. The receptionist directs the girls to their classes. It all seems a bit surreal, but they feel a lot better. They feel like they don't have as many things to worry about.
Lucie slides into her seat next to Martha. She sits next to Martha in most lessons except maths. Luckily, this lesson is geography.
"Hello, Luce Luce!" says Martha.
"Ssh, Martha," says the T.A. "Remember, we're not supposed to talk whilst the teacher is talking. But you can wave at Lucie when she walks in."
"Oh, I will remember," whispers Martha. "Sorry."
Lucie smiles at her friend. She thinks Martha is really pretty - fine blonde hair, shiny blue eyes, cute lopsided smile, little freckles dotting her face over her nose and cheeks. Lucie blushes a little and picks up her pencil. Her expression quickly changes to one of boredom as they start going through map work.
In Katie's lesson - Art
Katie follows her class outside. "Today," says the teacher, "we're going to partner up to look for plants to draw! When you find a nice plant, look at it closely and try to draw it!"
Katie bounces excitedly. Knowing facts about the world is her favourite thing ever! Sure, she might not be the best drawer, but she knows all the plant facts! She knows that daisies are called Bellis Perennis by scientists. She knows that the bees are just trying to help spread the other plants and don't actually want to hurt people. She also knows that grasses are classified as Poaceae.
She forgets to find a partner and immediately runs off to find a pretty plant to draw. She sees lots of the other children wandering around looking for flowers, but Katie darts into the vegetable garden, knowing that there might be some interesting leaves to draw. As she crouches down in front of a bed of carrots to look for a good one to draw, she sees a ladybird sitting on one. As quietly as possible, Katie gets out her art book and pencils and slowly draws the leaf with the ladybird.
The ladybird is a fantastic model and barely moves, which makes Katie worry that it might be dead but it does move its head a little bit.
In Lucie's lesson
Lucie is learning about crime.
With the T.A.'s help, she has a mostly-accurately drawn choropleth map. Martha wasn't sure what one was, so the geography teacher, Mx. Longhall, explained to the class that a choropleth map shows the amount of something in a certain area through a different colour or variation in a colour's shade. The T.A. helped Lucie and Martha draw on the counties of a city for the map but let them colour it in and figure out how dark or light the colour should be for each county by themselves.
Lucie is used to either being called helpless and bad or not doing things all together, so this is fun.
However, Lucie is sad to see the amount of disability-related crimes in the city.
"Miss," types Lucie to the T.A. "Why are there so many crimes against disabled people?"
"I like to know that too," says Martha, pushing her glasses back up her nose.
" Okay, to answer your question, it's because some not-so-nice people don't like it when people behave or look differently to how society expects them to behave or look," says the T.A. "It's called discrimination and discrimination is illegal. However, many people like to say that some specific, non-curable and lifelong disabilities can and should be cured. For example, lots of people and organisations, such as Autism Saviour, like to promote bad or risky therapies in an attempt to 'cure' autistic people. However, autism is lifelong and is therefore non-curable," explains the T.A.
"Oh," says Martha. "I was told autism people like trains."
"Martha, you should know that it's much better to say something more like 'autistic people'. But don't forget some autistics like to be called 'people with autism'. Always ask them," says the T.A. "Now, not all autistic people like trains. Some might hate trains! That's a common misconception," explains the T.A.
"You didn't know, but now you do!" type Lucie, smiling at Martha.
"I understand now," smiles Martha.
[Image description: a beautiful drawing of Michelle by @MissTabbiiCat! In the picture, a Black woman is standing in the middle (Michelle). She has her hair in a black afro, her light blue star-studded hairband and is wearing a dark blue shirt with a gold crown logo on it. She is smiling. MissTabbiiCat said that we're going to pretend Michelle mislaid her glasses and is wearing contacts. Thank you for this lovely drawing, MissTabbiiCat!]
Thank you for reading! I'd love a vote and/or comment! Who's your favourite character? What do you think will happen to Katie and Lucie? What about Aasma and Ellie, or Winter and Rebecca? Are you excited to learn Aasma's story?