6 Blind Rugrats
Summary: During a playdate at Zachary's home, the rugrats admire his Aunty Celeste, who's blind, and wonder how she does things. So Zachary blindfolds Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimmi, and challenges them to live an entire day, blindfolded. Can they do it? And what new things will they learn along the way? Story is mostly told from Zack's POV. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Rugrats, they're the property of their original creaters. Also, as a reminder, Myself, Aunty Celeste, and my nephew Zachary, were introduced, way back when, in Rugrats and the Gray Plague.
Zachary POV
It's been five weeks since we started preschool, and on this particular Thursday morning, a new student would be joining our class.
"Please welcome your new classmate, James." Said Miss Applebee, as she pointed to our new classmate up next to her. He sat in a wheelchair, had black hair and wore blue jeans and a black shirt.
"Hello James." We all said in unison.
"Hi." James replied quietly.
"Do any of you have any questions for James?" Asked Miss Applebee.
"Why are you in that chair?" Tommy asked.
"I can't walk, so the wheelchair helps me get around." Replied James.
"Why can't you walk?" Asked Lil.
"I have something called… Cerial Palsy." Replied James.
"That's, Cerebral Palsy. It's a condition where your legs don't work like ours do. The wheelchair helps James get around, and just like the rest of you on your first day, James may feel scared, so let's all be nice to him, and make him feel welcome." Said Miss Applebee as she helped James join the rest of the circle.
"Now, before we break for free play, can anybody tell me what day it is?" Miss Applebee asked.
"Thursday," I replied.
"That's right Zachary. And what does that mean?" Asked Miss Applebee.
"It means tomorrow's Friday which means it's bring your parent to school day!" Exclaimed Samantha.
"That's right! Now, let's see who this week's parent volunteer is going to be." Said Miss Applebee, glancing at a chart on the wall.
"And tomorrow's special helper is going to be, Zackary's Aunty Celeste!" Said Miss Applebee excitedly. She turned and looked at me.
"So Zachary, you have homework tonight. You need to go home, and decide on an activity to do with the rest of the class." Said Miss Applebee.
"No problem Miss Applebee, I can do that." I replied, smiling up at her.
Later on at playtime, I overheard my fellow friends talking.
"Pour James, he's stuck in that wheelchair and can't do anything." Said Chuckie with a frown.
"Remember when Dil couldn't walk and we had to help him do stuff? Well, it looks like we're gonna have to help James too." Said Tommy.
"But how are we going to do that?" Asked Lil.
"Well, we'll just have to play with him, and be there to help him whenever he seems to be having trouble with something." Tommy replied.
"Now come on, let's go see what's in the water table today." Tommy continued, getting up off the floor and heading over to the water table.
I went over there too, and found that today, it wasn't a water table, but a sand table. I joined in with Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and James rolled over to the table.
"Hello James, wanna play pirates with us? We're gonna dig for buried treasure." Said Tommy, picking up a shovel out of the sand table.
"Sure, I'd love to play." Replied James.
"This is a shovel, I prefer to use my hands to dig in the sand, but most of us use the shovel to dig for treasure." Said Phil, as he not only handed the shovel to James, but continued to hold on to it, doing all of the digging for him. A little while later, James and Phil picked up a shiny marble.
"Wow look James, you found some treasure!" Exclaimed Phil.
"No I didn't, you did it for me." James said with a sigh, turning away from the sand table.
"I don't wanna play Sand Explorers anymore, I'll see you later." Said James, wheeling away from the sand table looking sad.
"Come to think of it, I don't wanna play Sand Explorers anymore either." I told Tommy, Chuckie, and Phil.
"What do you wanna do now?" Tommy asked.
"I'm heading over to the book nook." I replied, as I left the sand table and went to the book nook where I picked up one of the number books and started to read.
A few minutes later, Tommy and James had joined me, as I could overhear them talking.
"See James? This is the Reptar book. Look, there's Reptar, and there's Robo Snails." Said Tommy pointing at the pictures in the book in James' lap.
"I know who they are, you don't have to tell me everything." James snapped, as he threw the book on the floor and rolled away from the book nook.
"Hey wait, where are you going?" Tommy asked, tagging along after him.
But the one that really disturbed me was at the end of the morning during snack time. We were all seated around the table, and Miss Applebee was serving us fruit salad today. I noticed Kimi was sitting next to James, who was looking down at his fruit.
"Here James, try the grapes, they're really good!" Said Kimi, as she picked up a grape, and put it into James' mouth. James left the table.
"Don't you want the rest of your fruit salad?" Chuckie asked.
"No! I'm not hungry! Leave me alone!" James snapped as he rolled towards the cubbies to get his stuff.
"So how do you like the fruit salad Zack?" Tommy asked.
"It's fine." I muttered.
"Is something bothering you?" Tommy asked.
"No." I replied.
I wasn't about to sit there and talk with them about James with him in earshot. A little while later, I went to my cubby to get my things to go home, when I noticed my aunt was there to pick me and my friends up.
"Where's your dad Tommy?" Asked Chuckie.
"My dad had to take Dil to the doctor's. So looks like we're gonna play at Zack's house this afternoon." Tommy replied.
"Yay!" Exclaimed Kimi, Phil and Lil.
I continued to stand by my cubby, overhearing my aunt having a talk with my teacher.
"So, how did Zachary do today?" Asked Aunty Celeste.
"Well, he seemed to be a bit bored and distracted." Replied Miss Applebee.
"What do you mean?" Asked Celeste.
"Well, he was constantly spending a lot of time alone, reading in the book nook today. I really do think he'd be better off in a magnet school. According to the tests the kids took their first week of school, Zachary did acceptionally well. He can already add and subtract at the age of 2, and, he can read a few small words." Explained Miss Applebee.
"Hmmm, it may be something to consider. Let me talk it over with Zack and see what he thinks." Replied Celeste, as she headed in my direction.
"Hi Zachary, did you have a nice day?" Asked my aunt, as her cane bumped my foot.
I nodded.
"Come on everyone, you get to come over this afternoon since Tommy's daddy has to take Dil to his checkup. Let's go." Said Aunt Celeste as she walked out of the classroom with me, Tommy, Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil following behind her.
When we all got to my apartment, my friends and I all went and sat around the dining room table while my aunt made us lunch.
We all got into a discussion about special helper day, which happens in our preschool class on Fridays. I thought about the first Friday, when Phil and Lil's mommy came in, and had us do lots of exercises and read us The 3 Little Pigs. Then the following week, it was Chuckie and Kimi's parents turn, and we took a field trip to The Java Lava, where they showed us how to make coffee and smoothies. And last week, when Tommy's dad came, and showed us his latest invention, that ended up exploding and making a huge mess in the room.
"So what are we gonna do tomorrow on Special Helper Day Zack?" Asked Tommy.
"I haven't quite decided." I replied.
"Don't worry Zack, I know you'll think of something. After all, you and I are a lot alike, with coming up with ideas and our love for adventure." Said Tommy with a smile.
It was true, Tommy and I were a lot alike. I've had people in our class refer to us as twins. Just then, my aunt walked slowly out of the kitchen into the dining room, carrying the first bowl of macaroni and cheese to the table.
"Here's your lunch Tommy." Said Celeste.
"Thank you." Tommy replied.
My aunt approached Tommy, felt around him and put the bowl down in front of him. She continued to do this one by one until we all were served.
"Why does your aunt feed us one at a time?" Lil asked.
"And why does she walk so slow?" Phil asked.
"My aunt is blind, which means she can't see. So she walks slowly so she can find her way without running into stuff, and she carries one meal at a time to the table, so as to not spill." I replied.
"Oh, ok." Chuckie replied.
"How does she do stuff and take care of you if she can't see Zack?" Asked Tommy.
"What's it like being blind?" Asked Kimi.
"You know what guys? I think I have just the thing for us to do after lunch during playtime this afternoon." I replied with a smile, taking another bite of my macaroni and cheese with hotdog.
End of Zack POV and Chapter 1
And what are they going to do. You'll have to find out, in chapter 2.