Redemption Chapter 1
16 year old Alison DiLaurentis awoke in a cell of a youth detention center. Today was the last day of a one year sentence for a prank that went horribly wrong. She along with her friends Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, and Hanna Marin were behind the blinding of a classmate, Jenna Marshall. Ali threw a firecracker in Jenna's garage. An explosion occurred and Jenna was now blind. Alison received a longer sentence than her friends. Her friends only served six months in another youth facility. She was happy to be finally getting out of the facility. She wanted to go back to her life of being a queen bee in Rosewood, Pennsylvania.
Two hours after she awoke, a guard brought her bag of regular clothing. The clothing was sent by her parents. It was just a pair of jeans, sneakers, a blue v-neck shirt, socks, and underwear. She was happy to no longer wear prison clothing. After changing and doing her blonde hair into a ponytail, a guard told her gather up her things and she was taken into a meeting room where her parents and the warden were.
Her parents Kenneth and Jessica hugged her.
The warden, a woman named Elaine Lewis sat behind a desk.
"Well, Alison you are leaving here. You have done well here except for a couple of infractions early on in your sentence. I hope you have learned your lesson and I hope you continue to be getting your life on track. As part of your continued sentence, you will be meeting with a youth offender parole officer and you will be doing community service as well. I wish you luck Miss DiLaurentis." Elaine said.
Ali responded, "Thank you, Mrs. Lewis.
She was only pretending to be nice to the warden. Ali couldn't stand the warden. She and her parents left the detention center. She listened to music on her old iPhone which she told her mother to bring. They finally arrived in Rosewood. She was happy to be back in her old room. She laid down on her bed and loved how comfortable it was compared to the bed in her cell at the detention center.
Ali ate dinner with her family. It was summer time and it would be awhile before she would be back at school. After dinner, she watched a movie before going to bed. She thought of the past year being a detention center. She still didn't think she deserved to have been there. She hated that her friends served less time than her. Spencer was her next door neighbor, but the Hastings family sold their house and moved elsewhere in Rosewood.
She drifted off to sleep. The next morning, when she awoke she felt odd waking up in her home instead of the detention center. She showered and picked out clothes for the day. She was dreading the day mostly because she was going to be meeting with her parole officer.
Her father drove to her the county office. She again hated having to deal with the legal system.
Her parole officer came out to the waiting room. Alison noticed he was man in his mid 30s with dark hair.
He greeted them and said, "Hello Mr. DiLaurentis and Alison. I'm Jeffrey Stafford."
They followed him into his small office and took seats on blue hard plastic chairs.
Jeffrey said, "I have reviewed all of your records and spoke with the warden at the detention center. As part of your ongoing rehabilitation Alison, I think it would be best if you made some kind of restitution to the visually impaired community. Jenna Marshall was blinded because of your actions. You have expressed your remorse about that. But I'm assigning you to complete 100 hours of community service at the Philadelphia Center for The Blind. Now that place is a non-profit community organization that serves the needs of blind adults and blind children. Since it is summer time, you could probably complete the hours and Philadelphia is only 30 minutes away from Rosewood. I have spoken with the directors at the center and they are going to be monitoring you and reporting back to me."
Alison was immediately annoyed at the idea of having to do community service with blind people. She didn't want to be reminded of the disability that Jenna had. She faked a smile at her parole officer and said, "Ok, I will do my best with my community service."
Jeffrey said, "You could start tomorrow at the center if you like."
Alison nodded.
She and her father went back home. They told Jessica about her community service.
Jessica said to her daughter, "Alison, I want you to be on your best behavior at the place. You have caused enough problems for this family and this is your chance to redeem all of us."
Alison said, "I'm sorry Mom. I will just do my community service and be done with all of this. I want to put the past behind me."
The next day, Alison was on a public transportation bus that traveled daily from Rosewood to Philadelphia. She was getting nervous at the idea of working with blind people. The bus arrived at a stop in Philadelphia. Ali then took another bus to the center.
The building was quite big and modern looking. She noticed safety signs warning drivers and sighted people about the presence of visually impaired people being in the area.
She nervously walked into the building and caught sight of an older man walking with a white cane. She found the administrator's office.
The head administrator was a woman named Beverly Ryan. The 40 something woman with light brown hair greeted Alison.
"Alison, your service duties here will vary. We need help with cleaning and maintaining the building and our classrooms, rec rooms, our swimming area, and gym. You will also be working directly with our clients who come here for recreation, meetings, or certain types of training. One of your teen volunteers Sydney Driscoll will be mentoring you." Beverly said.
Alison simply nodded. The idea of working directly with blind people made her nervous.
A few minutes later, she was walking around with her mentor Sydney. The girl was around the same height as Ali and long dark hair. The girl showed Ali to the classrooms, rec rooms, braille library, and various rooms. She took Ali to the gym and Ali observed a group of blind children playing some kind of game involving plastic bats and kickballs.
She then followed Sydney to the swimming pool. The idea of blind people swimming sounded foreign to Alison.
Sydney said, "This is our swimming pool area. We conduct trainings here. Right now, it's not busy here but it will be in a couple of hours."
Sydney said, "Beverly wants you to go over some instruction books about working with blind people. Since it is quiet here, I figured we could do that here."
Ali said, "Sure."
She and the brunette girl took sat on bleachers. She listened as Sydney pointed out tips.
Ali ended up asking, "Why do you volunteer here Sydney?"
Sydney said, "My mom is blind. She was born that way. I have grown up knowing a lot of blind people. I volunteer here partially because it will help me with college applications. But I enjoy being here and I'm thinking about teaching blind kids and adults someday as a career".
Ali said, "I'm sorry about your mom."
Sydney said, "Thank you, but you don't need to be sorry. My mom is a good mom despite her disability. This life is all I have known and it's all she has known too."
Twenty minutes, later Alison heard the sound of tapping. She saw a smile form on Sydney's face.
"Hi Emily". Sydney said.
Alison turned around and saw a tall girl with dark hair walking with a white cane, tapping it from side to side. The girl had tan skin. Her eyes were covered by dark sunglasses. She wore jeans, Nike sneakers, and a green and white raglan shirt and had a black backpack on her one of her shoulders.
The girl said, "Hey, Sydney"
Ali watched as Sydney went over and hugged the girl, Emily.
Sydney said, "There is someone here that I would like you to meet."
Emily said, "Ok who?"
Ali watched as Emily took Sydney's arm. Ali got up from the bleacher she was sitting on.
When they got close to her. Sydney said, "This is Alison DiLaurentis, a new volunteer here for the summer".
Ali was nervous and she watched as Emily held out her hand.
She took Emily's hand and shook it and said, "Hi."
Emily said, "Is this your first time being around blind people?"
Ali said, "It is."
The blind girl smiled and said, "Don't worry. Sydney and the others will show you the ropes".
Ali said, "Thank you"
Sydney then said, "Emily is teaching a swim class here in awhile. We better let her get ready for that".
Ali and Sydney left the swimming pool. She spent the rest of the afternoon doing some cleaning and Sydney introduced her to other people.
She went back home to Rosewood on the bus. She thought about Emily. She found the girl to be attractive even though she didn't see the girl's eyes.
When she got back to Rosewood, she decided to pick up coffee at a shop known as The Brew. She made her order and when she walking out, she encountered her former friend Hanna Marin.
Hanna said, "It looks like they let you out."
Ali responded, "They had to. I did my time and so did you. But I did longer time. Now that I'm back in town, leave me alone Hanna".
She walked past Hanna and headed home.
Two days later, she headed back to Philly to the center for the blind. She went into the swimming pool and saw Emily swimming by herself in the pool. Sydney was at one end. Alison noticed that Sydney had some kind of long stick with a tennis ball attached at one end. She watched as Emily was coming near Sydney and she then saw Sydney tap Emily on the head with ball end of the stick. Emily then did the flip turn and started swimming to the other end.
Sydney said, "Hey Ali, I'm here helping Emily with her training. Let's walk to the other end, she is getting out now."
Ali said curiously , "You have to hit her with that stick?".
Sydney said, "It's called a tapper. It's a simple tap on the head to keep a blind swimmer from hitting the wall. Emily has been swimming for a long time, so she is used to it."
They walked to the other end. Sydney helped Emily out of the pool and handed her a towel.
Ali stared at Emily's well toned body. The brunette was wearing a blue swimsuit and blue swim cap. She watched as Emily pulled off the cap and her long hair came out.
Ali said, "Hello Emily, it's me Ali from yesterday".
Emily smiled and said, "Oh hi."
Ali noticed how Emily's eyes had a fixed gaze. Another thing, she noticed was that Emily's eyes looked slanted, an Asian feature.
Sydney said to Ali, "I'm going to help Emily. Why don't you go to the rec room and we will meet you there later on".
Ali went to the rec room and waited for Emily and Sydney. She noticed some braille books on a table. One of the books was the popular children's book Goodnight Moon. She ran her fingers over the raised bumps which also had printed words above them.
She picked up a couple a printed magazine and read awhile, before she heard a tapping cane. It was Emily. Her hair was dried and tied into a ponytail. She was wearing a stripped t-shirt, jeans, and her Converse shoes. Ali noticed the dark sunglasses she had on.
Emily said, "Sydney got busy with some stuff. She will be here later. Our duties are to put together some braille counting charts for the little kids who come here for classes. The supplies are in the big cabinet on the end."
Ali said, "Ok, I'll get the stuff out."
Emily took a seat at a table. She folded her white can and put in a pocket in her backpack. Ali sorted the supplies.
Emily said, "To make, the charts we tape the numbers in a horizontal lines on the boards."
Ali said, "I see, seems really easy."
Emily teased, "Be glad the numbers are also in print."
The two girls started working on the charts. Ali noticed a radio in the room. She wanted to turn it on for background noise, but she decided not to. She decided to get to know Emily.
Ali nervously said, "Emily how did you….?"
Emily replied, "Go blind?"
"Um yeah. I hope you don't mind me asking." Ali said.
"It's ok. It was a tumor in my brain that effected my optic nerves. I was 7."
Ali said, "I'm sorry that must have been hard."
"It was. But I adjusted easily with going to a school for the blind and coming here."
Ali began to wonder about Jenna. Jenna was older than Emily when she went blind. She wondered about a how a teenager like Jenna adjusted.
Emily then asked, "What do you look like?"
Ali said, "I have blonde hair that is long. My eyes are blue".
Emily said, "Would it be ok, if I felt your face? I know it sounds weird."
Ali was a bit taken back, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to say yes.
She said to Emily, "Sure you can feel it."
Emily said, "Take my hands and put them on your face".
Ali took Emily's hands, she liked the contrast of Emily's tan skin on her pale skin. She placed Emily's hands on her face.
Slowly, Emily felt around Ali's face gently. She ran a finger over Ali's eye brows and the bridge of her nose. She ran one under Ali's chin and sides of her face
Emily didn't say anything for a few minutes.
She then said, "Your facial structure feels beautiful"
Ali said, "Thank you. You are pretty too."
Emily got a bit embarrassed, "I doubt that you mean that."
"I do mean it. I don't want to sound insensitive, but what is your racial background." Ali said.
"I'm a mix of Filipino, Korean, Scottish, and Irish. My dad is half Korean and half Irish. My mom is half Filipino and half Scottish." Emily said.
"I knew you were Asian, I just didn't know exactly. How old are you?"
I'm 17, you?"
Ali replied, "I'm 16"
"What high school do you go to?"
Ali said, "Rosewood High in Rosewood. It's about 30 minutes from here. Do you still go to a blind school?"
Emily said, "I do, the one here in Philly."
Ali had heard from her lawyer that Jenna was attending blind school in Philadelphia. She knew it had to be the same one as Emily.
The two girls then chatted about other things like music, movies, and TV shows.
Later on, Emily's phone rang and she answered it.
After Emily hung up, she said to Ali, "That was my mom. She is coming to pick me up for an appointment. I'm going to head out to the lobby. It was good working with you today Ali."
Ali said, "I enjoyed working with you too."
Emily gathered up her things and unfolded her cane.
Ali asked, "Emily, would it be ok if I put my number in your phone?"
The brunette smiled and said, "Sure."
She handed the phone to Ali and Ali typed into her information.
Ali asked, "Is your phone voice commanded?"
"Yeah. The voice over software also tells me things"
Emily said, "I got to go. Call me Ali and when will you be here again"
Ali said, "I should be here on Friday".
"Oh cool. I'm teaching swim class and you could help me."
Ali said, "It would be my pleasure".
Emily said bye to Ali and headed out of the classroom.
The blonde had a crush on the blind girl, but she didn't want to admit to anyone.