Love is Blind

chapter one

"Move over guide dog," Shawn was shoved to the side and he watched as Justin rushed past Camila and him in the hallway. He looked at the blind girl next to him and watched as she flinched and then furrowed her brow.

"Who was that? Was it Justin?" Camila asked frustratedly and Shawn sighed.

"Don't worry about it, Mila. He's just a huge dick." Shawn scoffed and led his friend through the halls and towards their first period.

"Yeah, I know that," Camila sighed before continuing "Why do you continue to be my friend when everyone treats you differently for it too? It's practically asking for it."

"Because you were there for me through my struggles. Even through the gay rumors of 8th grade." The two friends made a turn into their class room and Shawn led her to the far front of the room. He reached down to hold her hand and guide it so she was touching the side bar which held the chair and desk together.

"Well, it's not like being friends with you would make me lose any friends. You're my only friend so if anything it helped me keep my friends." Camila smiled as she spoke and Shawn admired the way her facial expressions told so much without the expression of her eyes, only her mouth and the way her nose would crinkle up when she was excited.

Shawn sat next to her and reached down to set up her Brailler for her.

Camila shook her head, humored, and flinched again once she heard loud voices entering the classroom.

"Hey don't forget, this Friday we're going to the movies. The new Star Wars movie is out and I can't wait to go." Shawn smiled.

Camila laugh and grinned, "Remind me why I go with you to those things? It's significantly less entertaining to go to Star Wars if you can't see the explosions and cool weapons."

"You go because you like spending your time with me, even if you can't always make out the plot." Shawn said cockily. The bell rang and their teacher walked in, closing the door behind her.

Camila shrugged. "Well I suppose I have nothing else to do on a Friday. Besides, it's not like we'll have much homework the first week of school."

"I'm going to go ahead and pass out the syllabus as I introduce myself. I'm Ms. Lovato, I teach chem, and of course honors and on-level bio." The woman in the front of the class began to speak as she counted how many papers she needed for each row.
She stopped once she reached Camila's row, the very last, and pulled out a sheet at the bottom of the stack before placing on her desk. "It's nice to have you again, Camila." she smiled and brought a hand down to touch her shoulder.

"It's nice to have you again." Camila nodded and felt the desk for the syllabus, already typed up in braille. She and Shawn had had Ms. Lovato their previous year when they had taken biology. She was her absolute favorite teacher simply because over the course of the year, she had begun to pay more attention to what Camila needed, and didn't continue to make the mistake of handing her a homework sheet that wasn't in braille. Most teachers in fact would just exempt her from homework simply because they were too lazy to send in the sheets to her counselor, who on a weekly basis would print it in braille for her to read.

No one sat behind Camila in class. It was as simple as that. The seat behind her had always stayed empty in just about every class unless they had lab tables, which were only in half of the government hall and half of the science hall. Camila didn't know why that was.

Her set up in each class was essentially the same. She sat in the front corner desk, closest to the wall with a window. Not that it made much difference whether the window was there or not, but sometimes she enjoyed going up to it after class and pressing her palm against the warm or cool glass depending on the season. It was as if she were able to feel a filtered version of the outdoors almost in the way her classmates were able to see it.It almost made her feel normal. Shawn sat next to her in each class, except for the classes he wasn't in with her. Those were always lonely and a little frightening. The desk behind her was almost always empty and she thought she may know why, but she'd rather not think about it to know for sure.