Dysarthria | Dialogue Story ✔

Chapter 36: Senorita

Jake (teammate) - italics and underlined

Narration - normal

TESSA - ALL CAPS AND UNDERLINED

CHLOE - ALL CAPS AND BOLD

MEGHAN - ALL CAPS AND ITALICS

Chapter 27: 𝓢𝓮𝓷𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓪

Saturday, August 13th

Starting from when she stepped out of the shower, Gracie had been chewing mint-flavored gum to strengthen her jaw. She would be meeting Cory's friends tonight and she didn't want to sound silly in front of them.

Her speech therapist always said to chew gum or to drink milkshakes because sucking a thick beverage through a straw worked out the jaw. Right now, she was willing to do anything to have a good speech day. Cory had already heard her dysarthria, but she wanted to leave a good first impression on his friends.

A tight knight formed in the pit of her stomach as scenarios flooded her mind. Everywhere she looked, she saw herself screwing up her speech in front of his friends despite her efforts to prevent that from happening. As she rubbed her hands together, her palms felt moist and she could feel her heart thudding, battling with her ribcage to let it out. Gracie was pacing back and forth across her room with her fingers to her lips, the earlier scenarios making an reappearance.

Words leaving her lips without her wanting them to.

Awkward chuckles coming out of her.

Uncomfortable silence with Cory and his friends standing around and looking at her.

She plopped herself on her bed and stared at the ceiling fan, her arms around the back of her head. She allowed herself to take deep breaths until her heart was under control and those nerve-wracking scenarios were replaced by a blank screen. That was all she needed to do to lure the kaleidoscope of butterflies that was throwing a party inside of her to sleep and dry the sweat that was taking over her hands.

She was going to be okay.

-

Gracie sat in the seats in the front row as she watched Cory play in the game. She was never a football fan. Hell, she was never a fan of any kind of sport. She had to sit through her brothers' baseball games and her sister's basketball games where she'd zone out most of the time.

What made it worse was that her brother, Brian, was a huge sports nut. Whether it was football, basketball, baseball or, and the worst of them all, golf. It seemed like the most boring sport of all time. How could anyone stand in silence as they watch the players hit a ball with a stick until it rolls into a hole?

Every time her and her parents came over to visit Brian and Lacey, her future sister, one of the sports was playing on the TV. She had enough of watching football there, so the last thing she wanted to do was watch the live version of that very sport.

Gracie may not be a fan, but she wanted to support Cory.

After what felt like hours, the game ended with a win and all the Cardinals fans stood up and cheered at the top of their lungs. By the time they were done, the blinding sun that was throwing down one hundred-degree heat had disappeared and was replaced with the darkness that invaded the sky.