“Scootaloo, that was an awesome game!”
“Did you see the way she dodged everything he threw at her!”
“I can’t believe how good of a throw that was Scootaloo, could you teach me how to do it?”
Scootaloo was bombarded with questions like this and the epic tale of the dodgeball game from period three quickly found its way to everyone in the school. Scootaloo was happy that so many people wanted to talk to her, but she could tell that each one of them would turn her away if she let them find out about her secret. From the way that the boy she faced in dodgeball was constantly looking at her legs, she could tell that he at least suspected something was up. Whenever she caught him staring though, he acted as though he was looking for something he dropped, or that he was trying to talk to someone else in the hallway.
Thankfully, the rest of the day passed by with relatively nothing exciting happening, and before she knew it, the final bell had rung for everyone to pack up and go home. She decided to hang back in the classroom to talk to her new spanish teacher, Dr. Sombrero, about what they were going to be doing over the course of the year, while waiting for the crowd in the halls to die down a bit. After talking with him for several minutes, the halls were finally empty. She quickly thanked her teacher for the help, before rushing out of the room to pack up and talk to her mom. She quickly walked to her locker, and grabbed all of the books she would need to do the small amount of homework she had accumulated over the course of the day. When she shut the door though, she was surprised and startled by who she saw standing there.
“Hello Scootaloo, I was hoping to ask you something before you left.” the young man said to her. Scootaloo is so surprised that she drops her backpack, which is swiftly caught by the boy before it hits the floor. Scootaloo clears her face of all emotion, before grinning cockily and says
“Let me guess, you want to know how I wiped the floor with you during gym class” sarcastically.
“Actually that is partly what I wanted to ask you.” he replies, leaving Scootaloo completely flabbergasted and partly worried about what he may say next
“The thing is, I noticed that you seem to shuffle more than you seem to walk.”
Scootaloo’s face turns from a look of worry to a look of fear, expecting what will come next.
“It’s just that... there isn’t an easy way to say this is there. Alright, here it goes. After everything I noticed today, I believe that you were that kid who was in that accident six years ago.”
For a split second, Scootaloo’s expression shifts from fear to curiosity, before moving into a look of caution.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it’s complicated.”
“You’re going to have to explain how you know this. My mom made sure none of this went public, not even the fact that I was the one who got hit then. Also whatever she couldn’t cover up, the guy who hit me did.”
“Yeah, well the thing is that, I was the guy that he hired to do the cover up.”
“Wat?”
“Yeah, thing is that I have had quite a few jobs in the past, but until recently I haven’t been attending school regularly, but we’re getting off track now. The point is that the fact that your leg joints don’t bend the way they should, that you rarely run at a rapid pace, and the fact that I did the cover up back when you got injured and nothing else of that kind of magnitude has happened in years, all add up to the conclusion that you have two prosthetic legs that run from your knees downwards.”
At the revelation that someone knew her secret, Scootaloo did the only thing she thought to be sensible. She started to cry, and then hit the boy over and over again. However, the boy did not lay a finger on Scootaloo, and let her frustration at her current situation vent. Scootaloo continued to hit him for several minutes, until she could hit him no more, and her tears had run out. She slumped to the ground in exhaustion, but still visibly upset about what happened in the last few minutes. Then she notices the boy standing there, with a warm smile on his face, and his right arm extended.
“Here, let me help you up” he says as she takes his hand. She is suddenly jerked up, and wobbles around for a second, before regaining her balance on her faux legs.
“I won’t tell anyone about your secret, it’s not mine to share. However, I can try to help you learn to let others in on your disability, if you want.” the boy says as he scribbles something down on a piece of paper.
“Here’s my number. Call me if you want to hang out sometime, or if you just want to talk.” he says as he starts to walk away. Scootaloo looks at the number, but then realizes that she doesn’t even know his name. When she looks up to try and looks around for the boy though, he’s gone.