A new story I came up with. I only own Aurora and Rachel.
A/N: In this story, Aurora is dyslexic, which is more common than you might think. I had a friend who was dyslexic and she used colored screens to help her when she was doing her school work. This story is not to poke fun at anyone who is dyslexic.
A Thing For Brains
Aurora stumbled over her feet as she tried to keep moving to keep the cold from chilling her badly, but she was out in the freezing air, cradling her left cheek with her hand and winced as it was tender from when her caretaker had slapped her for getting bad grades again.
But her grades were never good and because they moved every school year, Aurora's grades never improved, but it wasn't because of the moving.
It was because Aurora couldn't seem to complete any assignments because they made no sense to her. She'd copy something down from the chalkboard the teacher wrote on, but when she studied it later, something would happen and she'd always mix up the equation or whatever else she had written down. The teacher called her on it many times and the students always laughed at her.
Now, she tripped and fell flat in the road, unable to get back up, but she dragged herself to a doorway nearby, hoping to find it at least warm.
She then heard footsteps and quickly tried to hide, but they came closer. "It's a girl," said a deep voice.
"Why is she out here without a jacket on? It's cold enough to freeze water," said another voice as two figures came nearer to Aurora's hiding spot. She froze when she saw a mummy and a vampire stand in front of her, only they both looked very futuristic. She shivered in fear and saw the vampire alien take off the jacket he had on.
"Don't be frightened," he said to her. "You'll be warmer with this."
Aurora shook in fear as he got closer and placed the jacket on her, wrapping it so that she was shielded from the cold. She then felt him gently touch her sore cheek and she flinched.
"Are you hurt?" he asked gently and felt her shiver, her eyes filled with fear.
"We should get back to the Mansion," said the mummy. "We can take her with us."
The other nodded. "She's been abused, from what I can sense," he said and reached down, scooping the girl in his arms.
Aurora flinched again and trembled as the three of them now headed off to a huge Mansion on the hill. She recognized it to be the Grant Mansion and looked up at the person who held her in his arms. He glanced down when he sensed she was getting scared and gently smiled.
"Don't be afraid," he said. "It may look frightening, but you don't have to worry about someone hurting you again."
She looked away and felt the mummy person brush some of her hair away from her face in a gentle gesture, being mindful of her sore cheek.
Rachel opened the door when they came up. "Guys, what happened?" she asked.
"We found her in the doorway of your uncle's store," said Whampire.
"We believe she was abused, judging by her reactions," said Snare-Oh.
The owner of the Grant Mansion helped the younger girl stay upright after Whampire set her down. "I'll get her to Frankenstrike," she said and led the girl there.
Aurora was a bit bewildered by the older girl's kindness but when she saw the person the blonde-haired girl had called Frankenstrike, she froze in fear.
"Hey, it's okay," said Rachel. "Frankenstrike isn't going to hurt you."
But both Rachel and the scientist alien saw the young girl was too scared to listen. They covered their ears when she let out a loud scream and then ran off. Both followed as they were a bit worried about her.
Aurora ran into one of the rooms and shut the door, breathing a bit hard. After a moment, she looked up and her eyes went wide.
All around the room where papers taped to the walls and chalkboards filled with elaborate equations that she had never seen before. She tried to follow some of them, but because there was so many and it was confusing, her brain began to hurt and she sat down on the bed.
"Don't worry," said an educated voice. "These equations are a bit too complex for the human mind to grasp."
Aurora jumped and looked around and then saw something that made her eighteen-year-old eyes grow wide.
It was a crab that was as tall as her with a huge head. She blinked to see if he was real and he was.
"My apologies," he said with a bow. "It was not my intent to startle you."
She looked at him and felt curiosity override fear. "Did…did you do all these equations?" she asked in awe.
He smiled. "I did, my dear girl," he said. "Are you new here? I haven't seen you before."
She nodded. "A mummy and a vampire brought me here."
"Ah, Snare-Oh and Whampire. But why would they bring you here? Surely you have family worried about you."
Aurora looked away and that was when the crab saw her bruised cheek. "My gracious!" he said in shock, gently touching her shoulder and indicating to her cheek. "Who on Earth did this to you?"
She looked down. "My caretaker," she said. "Because my school grades are bad."
She then looked at him. "Who are you?"
"Brainstorm is my name," he said. "And I'm curious as to how bad your grades are. You look like a very smart girl."
She blushed a little but then shook her head. "I've always gotten F's on my tests and in my subjects ever since I was six," she said. "Every year, my caretaker would move me to a new state and a new school."
Brainstorm had a look of disgust on his face. "Goodness," he said. "And he abuses you because of your poor grades? That isn't right and you say this has been happening since first grade?"
She nodded. "That means you haven't even had a proper education," he continued. "The bad grades are a result of your caretaker pushing you through and not having you learn anything at all. And that is an awful thing to do."
She looked at him. "I think something's wrong with my eyes too," she said. "I copy something down from the teacher's blackboard, but when I go to study it later, I've been told I get it wrong or switched something I shouldn't have."
Brainstorm went quiet and saw Rachel and Frankenstrike come in. "What do you mean by that?" the older girl asked gently.
"Can you perhaps show us?" asked Frankenstrike. "Try to copy one of Brainstorm's equations."
Accepting the pencil and paper from the crab alien, Aurora chose the first equation she spotted and wrote it down and gave it to Rachel, who glanced at it and frowned a bit. "I think you mixed up the first and last parts of the equation," she said gently. "You have them both in the wrong place."
Aurora looked down. "That's what I see sometimes," she explained. "Everyone calls me dumb because I can't do it right."
Rachel studied the equation Aurora had written and compared it to the original. "When you look at Brainstorm's equation, what you've written down is what you see?" she asked.
The younger girl nodded. "Yes," she said.
The owner of the Grant Mansion shook her head. "Honey, you're not dumb. You have dyslexia."
Aurora looked at her confusedly. "What's dyslexia?" she asked.
"Dyslexia is a brain condition where for some reason the brain will cause you to see a written sentence, equation, or such in a different order than what was written," Rachel explained. "If I remember correctly, one way to counter the dyslexic effect was to use a transparent screen that was a certain color, usually pink. When that screen is placed over a piece of paper, the pink screen had some effect on the brain and the person would be able to read the sentence or equation correctly."
"I recall studying that once," said Brainstorm. "But it would depend on how dyslexic a person was to determine either what color helped them or if any other methods would counter the dyslexia."
Frankenstrike looked at the girl. "We could try the colored screens and see if that helps you," he said. "I happen to have some in my lab."
A half-hour later, Aurora gained a bit of confidence as they found the light pink screen was helping her and she was able to copy the equations with no trouble now. Rachel smiled.
"Do you feel comfortable being alone with Brainstorm while I see that your caretaker is brought to justice?" she asked her and the girl nodded.
"In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can made the screens into a pair of glasses for you," said Frankenstrike.
"I believe I can tutor you and see if we can get you up to speed on your education and fill in the gaps," said Brainstorm.
Aurora nodded.
It was nighttime when Rachel came up and smiled at the scene she saw before her. Brainstorm was patiently tutoring Aurora, who was catching on pretty quickly on some things, but others were a little harder to grasp and the young girl was wearing glasses that had light-pink lenses with black frames. Frankenstrike was beside her, hoping that his invention was helping her and grinned when he saw it was. Rachel lightly cleared her throat.
"Well done, Aurora!" said Brainstorm. "You'll get caught up in no time."
The eighteen-year-old girl hugged both of the aliens and then hugged Rachel who had just walked in. "Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome," she said.
It was about a year later when Aurora came home to the Mansion with exciting news. "I got my diploma!" she said to her gathered friends. "And the local college has granted me a full scholarship for four years!"
"Aurora, that's fantastic!" said Rachel and the others sounded in their agreements. A huge party took place to congratulate the young girl on her achievement and she happily hugged all of her alien friends.
After a moment of mingling, Aurora saw Brainstorm and went over to him. He smiled at her, stunned by her beauty, especially her smile. "Well done, Aurora," he said.
"You and the others helped me," she said. "Thank you."
He smiled. "Aurora, I was wondering," he said. "A few months after you came here, when I was helping you, you would blush at times. I wondered why, but I believe I figured it out."
She looked sheepish. "It was that obvious?" she asked.
"Yes, but I feel the same, when I first saw you walk into my room."
Aurora blushed again and then saw Brainstorm hold out a small box to her and she opened it to see a beautiful necklace that sparkled with prism gems, making them flash rainbow colors in the light. "Aurora, will you do me the honors of being the love of my life, forever?" he asked.
She was so stunned but then she looked at him, tears of happiness in her eyes. "Yes," she breathed out and then took a deep breath. "YES! YES! YES!"
The others all smiled as they watched the two kiss and Rachel mentally added another couple to the growing list of weddings coming up.
It was going to boggle one's mind, no doubt.
And we have another couple at the Mansion.
Please leave a review, but no flames!
GoldGuardian2418