Chapter 1
Stephanie Tanner hugged her father goodbye. "Bye, Dad, see you later." She hopped into the car and it dropped her off at the local middle school, where she was in eighth grade. After a bit of laughing and chatting with her friends, the bell rang and she went to her first class, which was English.
After her teacher finally calmed everyone down, she said "Class, we have a new student! Please welcome Melanie Finegold." A girl that Stephanie had not noticed before stepped forward. She looked basically like a regular girl: Short brownish hair, pulled back into a ponytail, hazel eyes, a very skinny body. Stephanie's eyes traveled over the girl and came to rest on a strange object the girl was leaning on.
It was slender, with Melanie's hand holding a handle about ¾ of the way up the object. Above that was a plastic circle that encircled her wrist. Stephanie wondered what in the world this object was, and why the girl had it with her.
She didn't have long to find out. Melanie smiled. She had braces on her teeth, like many other people in this class. Then she said softly "You are probably all wondering why I have this (she gestured to the object) with me." The class murmured in consent. "Well, this thing is a crutch. Now you've probably used crutches when you've broken your leg, but this is a different kind of crutch. This is a forearm crutch. I use it because I have cerebral palsy….are there any questions?" A boy in the front row raised his hand. "What's cerebral palsy?" he asked. Melanie smiled again.
"Cerebral palsy is a disability-not a disease-where something goes wrong in the brain and it has trouble controlling the muscles of a person's body. There are many types of cerebral palsy, or CP for short. The kind I have is called Cerebral Palsy Spastic Diplegia. Basically, all that means is that my muscles are tight all the time, especially in my legs, which makes it harder for me to do stuff. Because of my poor balance, and also because I get tired easily, I use the crutch a lot." There was still a lot of confusion on the faces of the class, but Melanie had decided that enough was enough-for now. She said thank you and sat down in her seat. Class had begun.