A World of Her Own

Chapter 2

Liora's mom was waiting for her when she arrived home. Her anxiety was palpable. Liora glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It was 6 pm, almost three hours after she normally came home from school. Liora hoped her mom hadn't received a call from the school office, reporting that she was cutting classes again. Although she had only been back in school for the past few weeks, Liora had developed a habit of skipping her afternoon classes. She often felt overwhelmed and mentally exhausted from a full morning of learning and needed to escape. If she didn't leave school altogether, she often hid out in the library when she needed to get away from the noise and clamor of the classroom. Liora tried not to skip the same classes each time so that she could still maintain a good attendance record. But it was starting to catch up to her. 

"Liora, where were you?" asked her mom. There was still an edge of anxiety in her voice but her tone was stern. 

Liora searched for an escape. There was no way she could tell her mother that she had gone to the beach. She tried to duck the line of questioning.

"I had some errands to run. I ended up getting stuck in rush hour traffic. That's why it took so long. I had a long day at school and I'm really tired now. May I please go to my room?"

Liora's mother sighed. Her face softened into a mix of tenderness and confusion. "Alright, but dinner will be ready soon. I made roast chicken and potatoes, one of your favorites."

"I'm not hungry. I had a long day at school and I'm really tired. And I have a ton of homework to do tonight. I just need to take a quick nap before I get started. I have a math test coming up," Liora replied. 

Liora's answer was the truth. Because she often could understand very little that was said in class, she usually spent several hours a night re-teaching herself the material that they had learned that day. Some nights she was too tired and just went straight to bed but she found herself paying for it the next night when she had even more to study. Tonight would be rough because she had an algebra test in two days and was clueless on the material they had covered recently. Liora usually looked on Youtube for math tutoring videos but the challenge was finding one with accurate captions. If the video had a voice-over narrative and the captions weren't correct, she was sunk. She wouldn't be able to understand anything that was going on. Unless she was really lucky, it usually took her 30 minutes to an hour to find a video that had accurate captions and was simple enough for her to understand. 

As she trudged up the stairs, her mom called after her. "Remember you have an audiology appointment tomorrow after school. You need to get a new audiogram done."

Liora sighed and continued up the stairs to her room. She liked Dr. Bronsky with his personable manner. She had been going to him ever since she was four. He was friendly, always taking the time to explain what was going on with her hearing and never talking down to her. Liora felt patronized by most of the adults in her life. Especially by the ones who knew she was hard of hearing. They all tended to talk too loud and too slow and there was a subtle expression of pity in their eyes whenever they spoke to her. Liora hated being pitied. She wanted to be treated like any other teenager, not as if she was the living embodiment of some tragic tale. 

Liora dropped her backpack on the floor and flopped on the bed. She glanced at her computer. She really needed to start studying but her pillow was so comfortable. She pulled her sheets up around her and closed her eyes. "Just a few minutes and then I will start studying," she promised herself. She promptly fell fast asleep. 

"Man the sail!" the captain screamed. Liora rushed take the sail in. Rain pellets smacked her face and the salt-laced gale stung her eyes. Waves crashed overboard, drenching her. The sky was black and ominous. Lightning cracked overhead. Liora fought the urge to drop to the floor as thunder shook the boat. She couldn't freeze in fear. There was too much work to be done if they were to safely get through the storm.