Chapter Five: The Struggles

Cara had navigated her way to her regular teacher's classroom with her white cane as she used her memory of how many steps she took and followed familiar voices in the classroom, even though some of the voices made her feel dreadful. Luckily, she arrived at Mr. Echo's class, who would teach the critical stuff like Maths, English, and Science.

Once she arrived, she walked cautiously to her classroom desk, which was located next to the door on the front row, when suddenly, she felt a lump on her ankles as she tripped over it. She yelped as she thuds on the ground hard, "Oops, sorry about that, Zero Eyes!", snickered a boy's voice.

"Not again. This is the fifth time in the row that Trent did this.", Cara sighed to herself again as she struggled to get up.

All she could hear from behind her was nasty cackle and laughs from five boys and a few other students. What upset her was that nobody wanted to help her get up and the only student that would make at least show kindness was Lacey, but she wasn't at school, which Cara took note of as usually Lacey was the type to arrive at school earlier than other students as she was Mr. Echo's "favourite" student, which Cara didn't care about.

However, Cara was up and got to her seat, she heard giant footsteps coming, which did frighten her a bit, but she was used to it as she knew who they belonged to, "Good morning everyone!", chirped an adult male voice.

"Good morning, Mr. Echo.", Cara and the other twenty-four students chimed.

"I'm glad to hear such enthusiasm.", Mr. Echo explained, "Now, since it's Friday, I expect your homework to be done. Your English and your Maths homework."

Cara didn't feel stressed out about homework as she did hers' although her way of doing it was different compared to the others, "Now, I'll be collecting them right now, and if you haven't done it, you'll stay here at recess until it's completed or you'll have to stay at lunch as well."

With that, Cara heard Mr. Echo's thundering footsteps towards her as he asked kindly, "Miss Anderson. I'll be revising you soon to see if you have done it or not."

Cara nodded and replied, "Yes, Mr. Echo."

Now Cara knows that Mr. Echo believes her words as Cara was a diligent student, despite her passion for music, thanks to Mrs. Woodwind. With that, Mr. Echo collected her Braille before heading toward other students. Although her first start in school didn't go well, she at least felt proud to do her homework as she did study hard, despite needing help from her mother for the division part.

Once all the homework was taken, Mr. Echo then explained, "Alright, all of you have done your homework, which I'm very pleased to see."

"Even Darren, Trent, Samuel, Joseph, and Oscar did it?", Cara asked herself as usually these five boys would stay until their homework was completed.

However, she faced the teacher, based on where his voice was going, "Okay. Now homework is out of the way, and you don't have one for the weekend. Today, we will do a Maths test on multiplication and division. I want to remind you that calculators are not allowed or noted as cheating. We will be doing the two times, three times, five times, ten times multiplication, and the same number with division."

Cara was both eager yet nervous about her Maths test as she did study hard. She heard a few kids moaning and complaining about having a test, especially from the five boys. However, she took deep breaths before attending her surname, "Miss Anderson. Once the students receive their homework, I'll call you to get out of class and do the test separately."

The young girl understood that since she was blind, and couldn't write yet, she could answer the questions verbally and read using Braille. So, she nodded with a hum of a "yes", as she waited patiently yet felt a nervousness kicking in as she heard each paper being slipped and passed to each student with Mr. Echo's footsteps.

Once all the tests were handed, Mr. Echo approached Cara as she gulped a bit and tried to control her anxiety, "Alright, Miss Anderson. Let's go."

Cara took a deep breath as she hopped off her chair and retrieved her white cane as she followed Mr. Echo's footsteps. As she did so, she swore that she felt like every student was watching her and heard a few whispers. Were they talking about her or the Maths test, and were they watching her exiting the classroom to get tested?

When she exited her classroom, she felt like having jelly legs and butterflies in her stomach as she took many breaths, "I hope I'll pass this test. I did study hard."

"Congratulations, Miss Anderson. You got thirty-two out of forty.", Mr, Echo praised the young girl, "I can tell you to study well for your homework, but you need to study harder for the division, especially dividing by three."

Cara sighed in relief as she felt proud of herself. She did come a long way with her Maths. English and Science were no issue, but Maths was more challenging. Luckily, she passed, and she ended up getting a higher score. She usually gets sixty percent, but now she has jumped to eighty percent. She was so eager to tell her mother about it, but until then, she must return to class and get ready for English.

"For someone who's blind, you did well.", Mr. Echo commented with good intentions.

Cara, however, didn't like that comment as she felt like he made that comment to pity her condition. She hated being pitied or treated like she was less than capable. She wished teachers and students understood her and treated her like any other human being. Regardless, she let that slip aside as she walked her way to the classroom while following the noise of Mr. Echo's footsteps and vibration.

After recess rolled by, it was Art for Cara as she followed a familiar voice she had been looking for the whole recess as she knew this person well. However, she wasn't so excited about Art as she recently had a new teacher that treated her poorly, and of course, her bullies were in the same classroom.

When Cara made her way, she was greeted by a girl with long blonde hair and brown eyes, "Hello, Hannah.", Cara beamed despite looking visibly nervous.

"Hey, Cara.", Hannah replied in a fake tone of cheerful voice, "Where were you?"

"I was trying to look for you.", Cara sheepishly replied with a slight light pink blush.

"I was at the cafeteria.", Hannah replied with eyes rolling with a hidden annoyed tone of voice, despite Cara not seeing, making it easier to get away from being insincere.

"I-I'm sorry.", Cara apologised.

"Doesn't matter.", Hannah explained as the two made their way to the front of the Art room.

"Not Mr. Rains.", Cara sighed to herself as her eyes looked down, as she slightly frowned upon her lips.

As the Art class began to start, Mr. Rains explained to the students that since it was Friday, they could do freestyle art. All the kids were excited except for Cara, as the downside about Art was that it was visual, and Cara was blind. What's more, Mr. Rains would make rude remarks about her creativity, "If you have eyes, your creativity would be more open.", he bluntly stated to Cara with a disgusted look.

Cara felt so embarrassed and hurt as she wished she could go to the bathroom and cry. It didn't help that Mr. Rains would say it so loud that the whole classroom could hear it, even Hannah. With that, Cara was dragged by Mr. Rains outside the class as he suggested she amuse herself as he slammed the door shut.

Tears escaped from Cara's eyes as she got trippen over on purpose, nearly had an anxiety attack, got bullied at recess, and lost Hannah, but now with Mr. Rains was so horrible that she felt broken. As she sobbed, she remembered something. She reached into her backpack to retrieve a wooden brown acoustic guitar her grandmother gave to her. There, she began to strum the strings in a beautiful and don't melody, and she coped with her tears with music.

She didn't want to play loudly as she didn't want to infuriate Mr. Rains or disturb the classroom. She was considerate, and with every strum she made, she soothed her tears as she began to hum. Music was everything. She was creative with making up songs, and she loved challenges on how to play different instruments. What's more, she has been learning music since she was four years old.

As she strummed and hummed to her tune, she felt truly happy again as she smiled as the remaining teats escaped from her milky blue eyes. Cara felt like she was at peace and didn't need to worry about being bullied or pitied, or judged. This was her alone time, and she loved it as the music kept her company. It was as if the music was talking to her, telling her she was worthy and enough and that things would get better. Perhaps it did.

Lunchtime came as Cara found Hannah by following her familiar voice, "Hannah!", she cried.

Hannah turned around and was surprised to see her, "Oh! Cara! What are you doing here?"

"I've been trying to find you.", Cara smiled, "Glad we can chat again."

Hannah frowned about it as she thought carefully about getting rid of her without sounding like a terrible person. Then a plan came into her head as she asked in a friendly fake tone that Cars couldn't detect, "Cara. Before we can talk, can you please get me some milk and salad? Here's the money."

When Hannah gave Cara the money, Cara accepted it as she was a kind person. She was more than glad to help, "Sure."

With that, Cara made her way to a row of people waiting to order food. Once it was her turned to order, Mrs. Sharp gave her a fresh carton of milk, and fruit salad as Cara slowly walked her way to Hannah. She was being more cautious, and with her can't holding the white cane, it was a bit more challenging.

Just then, she tripped over again as milk and salad went flying in the air. She yelped again until the milk was splattered all over her with salad scattered everywhere, "Watch where you're going, Zero Eyes!", spat Darren as he was the one to make her trip over.

Cara felt humiliated as she heard the five boys making comments about her, "She looks so ugly!", smirked Oscar.

"She's so stupid to get food on her own!", laughed Joseph.

"At least she was trying to be healthy and have some carrots for eyes!", mocked Samuel.

"Hah! She has no eyes, remember!", Trent reminded the boys.

The boys pointed fingers at Cara as they chanted, "Zero Eyes! Zero Eyes! Zero Eyes!"

Them chanting a nasty nickname that Cara often gets caused a scene as some of the students began to laugh at Cara. Cara felt horrible as she blushed in a fine scarlet red as tears escaped her eyes. She wanted to get out of here. She grabbed her white cane and tried to run away from the crowd to the bathroom, and Trent yelled, "Yeah! Cry for your Mummy, Zero Eyes!"

Cara reached the girls' bathroom as she began to wipe off the salad and dry herself from the spilled milk as she felt awful. She stared at the mirror blankly as she couldn't see as she began to sob, "Why? Why me? Why did I embarrass myself? I shouldn't have gotten lunch for Hannah! I wish Hannah were here!"

Unfortunately for Cara, Hannah never supported her as it was always one-sided. Cara never had a true friend, and she thought that friendship was real, even though she felt alone and miserable. She couldn't help but sob even harder. However, as she cried, she remembered James.

James. James was such a nice engine, and she struck up a friendly conversation with him. He listened to her as she listened to him. She wished she could chat with him to ease her sorrow, but since he was too busy on the railway and he was an engine, not a human, she felt terrible. However, she hoped at least she could meet James after school.

With that thought, she managed to clean herself up as she didn't want her mother to know. Her mother did previously report her being bullied at school, but it only made things worse as she got forced even more and was called a "snitch".

Once Cara was done, she heard the bell ring, "Okay. Last lesson until school is finished.", she sighed as she took a deep breath before making a determined look with narrowed eyes and a frown, "I got this! Or do I?"