On Friday morning, Blake and I walked into our Biology class and took our seats. Mr. White wasn’t there yet, so I scooted my chair closer to Blake and laced my fingers with his, talking quietly with him. When the bell rang and the teacher still wasn’t there, the class started murmuring, wondering where he was.

            The door opened, and a man that I didn’t recognize came in. He had white hair and a slightly wrinkled face that seemed to be set in a permanent frown. “Settle down, class,” he called out. “Mr. White is ill today, so I will be teaching. My name is Mr. Grant and I do not tolerate any nonsense.”

            I moved away from Blake with a quiet sigh. “This class is going to be a barrel of fun,” I muttered.

            Blake chuckled, but otherwise didn’t reply. Mr. Grant went up to the blackboard and wrote a few questions down. “Read these and answer them quietly. When you are done, occupy yourselves without speaking.”

            I rolled my eyes and took out some paper and a pencil. Blake scooted his chair a little closer to mine so I could read the questions to him and he could help me answer them. It was the system we had come up with and Mr. White was more then happy to let us work together.

            Apparently, Mr. Grant wasn’t quite as happy with the arrangement. He came up to our table as I was reading the second question to Blake. “What part of quietly did you not understand?” he snapped.

            I looked up in surprise. “Blake and I always do our work together. Mr. White has no problem with it.”

            “Well, I am not Mr. White, and I will not tolerate you talking. Move away from each other and do your work silently.”

            “But sir-”

            “I don’t want to hear your excuses,” he interrupted. “And you, take those sunglasses off immediately.”

            “But-” I tried to speak again.

            “Quiet!” he snapped. “Mr. White might let the two of you canoodle in his class, but I will not! If you refuse to listen, I will send you down to the office. I don’t have the patience to deal with hormone-riddled teenagers. And I told you to take those sunglasses off!”

            My cheeks flamed with embarrassment, but Blake got angry. He slammed his fist down onto the table. “Don’t talk to her like that!” he shouted. “And I’m not taking my sunglasses off, you ignorant asshole.”

            The teacher’s nostrils flared before he reached out and grabbed Blake’s sunglasses, ripping them off of him. “When I tell you to do something, I expect you to listen.”

            Something inside of me snapped a little and I jumped to my feet. “You prick! Give those back right now!”

            Mr. Grant turned his glare back to me. “Both of you, go to the office now!”

            Blake snorted and stood up readily. “Gladly.”

            I put my stuff into my bag and then Blake took it from me and found my hand with his free one. As I passed Mr. Grant, I snatched the glasses out of his hand. “Asshole,” I snarled and then Blake and I walked out of the room.

            I was almost shaking with anger as we headed to the office. Blake rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand gently, but it did nothing to calm me down. I threw the door of the office open with a bang and the secretary jumped a little. “Can I help you?” she asked.

            “We need to see the principal,” I snapped. Blake released my hand so he could wrap his arm around me. He murmured soothingly in my ear and I took a few deep breaths. “Please,” I added.

            She nodded and knocked on the door to his office. She poked her head in and said something to him, before stepping back and motioning for us to go in. “He can see you right away.”

            I took Blake’s hand once more and guided him into the office. Mr. Avery, the principal, looked up from the papers on his desk. He was a distinguished looking man with dark hair that was going gray at the temples. “Please, have a seat. What seems to be the problem?”

             Blake and I settled into the chairs on the other side of the desk from him. “We just got sent here by the substitute teacher in our Biology class.”

            Mr. Avery raised an eyebrow. “And what are your names?”

            “I’m Hailey Baker, and this is Blake Adams.”

            Recognition flitted over his face. “And why did he send you here?”

            “Well, Mr. White always lets us do our work together. Since Blake is blind, I read the questions to him and then we answer them together.”

            Mr. Avery nodded. “I am aware of this already. Continue.”

            “Well, that’s what we were doing today. Only Mr. Grant,” I spat the name out, “didn’t like us talking. I tried to explain it to him, but he kept cutting me off.”

            “And then implied that she was pretty much just trying to flirt with me,” Blake said.

            Mr. Avery’s face hardened a little. “I see. Anything else?”

            “He also grabbed Blake’s sunglasses off of him when Blake refused to take them off. I might have lost my temper a little bit after that. I kind of called him a few names,” I admitted a little sheepishly.

            “I called him a jackass, because he is one,” Blake said with no remorse.

            Mr. Avery sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Well, perhaps you shouldn’t have done that. However, I do not blame you for becoming angry. I’m aware of your relationship and I also know that you always work together in Mr. White’s class.”

            I looked at him in surprise. “How do you know about our relationship?”

            He smiled at me. “Teachers gossip as well. Since you have joined our school, Hailey, all of Blake’s teachers have noticed a difference, especially in the last few weeks. While he still doesn’t participate in any class except Biology, he no longer snaps at everyone who tries to speak to him.”

            “I’m sitting right here, you know,” Blake said dryly. 

            Mr. Avery chuckled a little. “Forgive me. Now, as to the issue of Mr. Grant, I will be sure to talk to him about his behavior.”

            I shook my head. “No, that’s not good enough.”

            He gave me a surprised look. “I’m sorry?”

            “Talking to him will not be enough. He needs to be seriously reprimanded for how he treated us. I tried more then once to explain it to him and he just cut me off. Even if we had no reason to be working together, he shouldn’t have acted that way. Everyone deserves a chance to tell their side of the story, no matter what the circumstances are.”

            Mr. Avery regarded me carefully. “You seem very passionate about this.”

            “I am. Not everything is as it seems at first glance. Take Blake for instance.”

            Blake frowned. “No, let’s not use me as an example,” he said.

            I rolled my eyes. “Oh shush. You’ll survive.” I turned back to Mr. Avery. “When people first see Blake, they don’t notice that anything is different about him. The first day I met him, I thought he was just an asshole who thought he was better then everyone else. When I learned that he was blind, I was surprised. It suddenly made sense to me why he had acted that way. After my accident, I was the same for quite a few months.”

            “Hailey, you don’t have to explain this to him,” Blake said quietly.

            I just shook my head. “I want him to understand why I’m so passionate about this.” I took a deep breath. “About ten months ago, I was in an accident that killed my parents and put my brother into a coma. It also left me unable to move my legs properly, due to serious damage to my back. It took over five months for me to walk again, and I’m still confined to a wheelchair on the really bad days.

            “People look at me and see nothing wrong, so I’m treated normally. Aside from Blake, no one in this school knows about my accident. But everyone here knows what happened to Blake, and they treat him differently because of that. No one took the time to try and understand him after the accident, and that’s just wrong. Because no one gave him the chance to tell his side of the story. To tell everyone what it felt like to be treated like a pariah.”

            Blake reached between the chairs and found my hand. “You did,” he said.

            “Only because I’m stubborn and a sucker for punishment,” I replied. “If I hadn’t pushed you for your friendship and your side of the story, then we wouldn’t be where we are now.” Finished with my speech, I sat back and blew out a breath.

            Mr. Avery sat back as well and laced his fingers together. “Have you ever thought of becoming a motivational speaker, Ms. Baker?”

            I blinked in surprise. “No?”

            “You should. That was quite an impressive speech. And because of it, I will make sure Mr. Grant’s case is taken up with the school board. I believe it might be time for him to retire permanently. He obviously cannot handle teaching anymore and it will just cause more harm for him to continue on.”

            I was unable to speak for a moment, so Blake did for me. “Thank you, Mr. Avery.”

            “You have nothing to thank me for. Hailey made a very good point, and made me realize that what Mr. Grant did was very wrong.”

            Blake stood up and pulled me to my feet as well. “We’ll go to the library for the rest of the period then. I have no desire to go back to class while that jerk is there.”

            “Understandable. I hope the rest of the day goes better for the two of you.”

            “Me too,” Blake replied and then turned to me. “Ready to go?”

            “Yeah,” I replied and we walked to the door. Before we left, I turned to look at Mr. Avery. “Thank you for actually listening.”

            “It was my pleasure. Think about what I said about motivational speaking.”

            I nodded. “I will.” Blake pulled me through the door and then I led him out of the outer office. As soon as we were out of there, he spun me around and wrapped his arms tightly around me. His lips captured mine in a heated kiss and he slowly backed me up until I was pressed against the wall. When he finally pulled back, I was breathless. “What was that for?”

            “For being an amazing person,” he said.

            I chuckled. “Well, I definitely won’t complain about that. I can’t believe he actually listened to me, though.”

            Blake put his forehead against mine. “You’re hard to ignore when you set your mind to something. Although I wish you’d been able to find another example to use.”

            “Sorry about that. I was just so riled up and that was the only thing I could come up with on the spur of the moment.”

            “It’s okay. Want to go to the library?”

            “Not really, but it’s better then standing in the hallway next to the office in this compromising position,” I replied.

            He grinned. “I quite like this position,” he said, kissing me lightly once more before pulling away. “But I agree. Let’s go.”

At lunch that day, the rumors were already going around about what happened with Mr. Grant. Apparently after Blake and I went to the library, Mr. Avery went to the classroom and told Mr. Grant that he was no longer needed for the day. Then Mr. Avery had asked the other students about the incident. Everyone confirmed what had happened and Mr. Avery then gave them the rest of the period as a free period.

What happened after that was unclear. One rumor said that Mr. Grant threw a fit and had a shouting match with the principal. Another rumor said that Mr. Grant got angry, but Mr. Avery just told him to leave. I tended to believe the second one, because I couldn’t see the principal actually shouting at him.

All of our friends asked us what had happened and we gave them the details of the classroom incident. We were getting a lot of looks from everyone else in the cafeteria, but they were more curious rather then shocked or unhappy this time. I think a lot of people were wondering just what had happened in the office after the incident in the classroom.

But Blake and I didn’t even tell our friends about that. Neither of us had the desire to go into the details about that. All we said was that the principal was on our side and nothing else.

At one point during lunch, I had to go to the bathroom. I was still in the stall when I heard two other girls come in and start talking. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard one of the girl’s mention Blake’s name.

 “Did you hear what happened with that blind guy this morning? Blake or whatever his name is?” the first girl asked.

“Yeah, he and his girlfriend got into some kind of an argument with one of the teachers, right?” the second girl replied.

“Something like that. They went to the principals office and then the principal kicked that teacher out of the school! Can you believe that?”

“Well, it sounded like the teacher was being really unfair to them,” the second girl said.

The first girl snorted. “Doubtful. Blake probably just didn’t understand a question or something and lost it. You know he has a reputation of losing his temper a lot.”

“I would as well, if I was in that situation. It must be really hard for him, losing his sight like that. It’s nice that he has a girlfriend now.”

“Nice? I think it’s just weird. I mean, how can she want to date someone like that? She must be doing it out of pity or something.”

I was about to storm out of the stall and give that girl a piece of my mind, but the other girl spoke again. “Are you kidding me? Have you not seen the two of them together? The last thing that girl feels for him is pity. The two of them are obviously in love. I don’t know Blake at all, but even I can see that he’s a lot happier now. He actually smiles sometimes and he sits with people at lunch. And I’ve seen him carry her bag for her, which I think is adorable. Those two were made for each other, everyone can see that.”

The first girl muttered something that I didn’t quite catch and then the two of them left the bathroom, obviously finished with fixing their makeup or whatever it was that they were doing. I slowly emerged from the bathroom stall and went to the sink to wash my hands.

I thought over what I had just heard. The first girl was one of those people that deserved a good smack upside the head. But the second girl had actually shown some compassion, which had been unexpected. I got the impression that she might still see Blake as different, but not necessarily in a bad way.

After I finished drying my hands, I walked towards the door and that’s when I spotted the flyer. A smile played on my lips as an idea formed in my head.

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You all better love me for getting this up so quick lol. The creative juices are really starting to flow again for this story, so fingers crossed that I can keep the updates coming.

Dedication goes to thecalmsea, because her book, Finding The Wolf Within, is really good!! And I'm very picky about what I read. She updates a couple of times a week as well, which is a good thing :-).

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, comment as always to let me know what you think!