Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon and other characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi.
Before Mamoru could reply, Usagi was out of her chair and standing in front of the high school boy. "I'm so sorry about what happened this morning," she apologized again bowing to him, "No one's usually on that side of the road in the mornings because of me, and I had sneezed really hard because I think my brother Shingo was talking badly about me again, and so I wasn't looking where I was running for like a moment and then all of a sudden I ran into you, I'm soooo sorry!" Usagi's ramble went on all in one breath.
Again before Mamoru could reply, a voice cut in from behind the counter, "Mamoru, what did you do to Usa-chan?!"
Everyone turned to see Matoki, son of the owner of the Fruits Crown Parlor and arcade. Matoki worked at the family establishment after school. He grew up with Naru and Usagi and Melvin, acting as an older brother. He also happened to be Mamrou's best friend.
It was actually pretty comical, seeing a sheepsih Usagi bowing in front of Mamoru who was red from Motoki's accusation. With all the stress of the day combined with the awkwardness of the situation, Usagi couldn't help but start to giggle. Her laugh was infectious and soon everyone was laughing along with her. Usagi was outright laughing, holding her sides, letting all her stress out in laughter.
As Usagi wiped the tears from her eyes as the laughing died down she turned to Motoki, "He didn't do anything wrong, Motoki-oniisan. I accidentally ran him down this morning and didn't get the chance to apologize properly because I was running late to school." Usagi smiled up to the older boy.
Mamoru was stunned by the small girl's smile, but before he could register any of his feelings he shook his head and bowed to the girl in front of him introducing himself, "Apology accepted," he smiled back, "I'm Mamoru Chiba. I'm Motoki's friend from school."
Motoki frowned, "Ahem, you mean best friend, right?"
Mamoru laughed, "Yes. My best friend and my only friend."
Usagi looked curiously between the two older boys, "I'm Usagi Tsukino, Chiba-san, but you can call me Usagi!" she chirped happily to Mamoru.
Mamoru and Usagi made their way back to the counter where Motoki already had a cup of black coffee for Mamoru in his hands. "Usa-chan is like a fourteen year old sister to me," Motoki bragged to Mamoru.
"Mou, Motoki-oniisan, you know you can't say that! Your sister got so mad at me last time! She almost ruined my sketch book!" Usagi wailed, looking around to make sure Motoki's real little sister wasn't around.
The message wasn't lost on Mamoru however. Motoki was protective about his 'little Usa-chan' hence why he mentioned her age to Mamoru. Mamoru smiled and put his hands up in surrender, Motoki nodded and set down the coffee in front of his best friend. Best friend or not, Usagi really was like a little sister to him and he was fiercely protective of her; especially now that she was starting to grow into her looks, it just seemed like she was getting more beautiful each day.
"So that's why you never let the guys come here to study," Mamoru smirked into his coffee as he brought it up to his lips for a sip.
"One word out of you and not only are you a dead man, but you can say goodbye to all your free coffee," Motoki growled back in a low voice so Usagi and Naru couldn't hear.
Mamoru's eyes widened at the very real threat, he knew that Motoki knew he lived off of coffee. He shook his head promising he would stay quiet.
Back by the girls a seat away, Usagi was wondering where Melvin was, "I wonder if everything is alright with Melvin," she said to Naru.
"I was wondering the same thing too," Naru replied back, concerned. They often made calls from the back lot, but every once in awhile Melvin would lock himself out by forgetting to prop the door open.
Motoki was about to go check on Melvin when a gaggle of high school girls walked in. Motoki glanced over to Naru, "Could you see if he needs any help for me please, Naru-chan? I have to go make sure those girls don't try to push all the tables together again."
Naru smiled and nodded and turned to Usagi, "I'll be right back!"
Usagi laughed, "If you're gone for too long, I'll send a search party!"
They laughed it off as Naru went to go in search for their unlucky friend. Usagi turned to the test that was still in front of her, trying to smooth out the paper more. She looked at the problems. She saw the numbers and her work, her brow furrowed as she saw she had written the numbers down in the wrong order. That was odd.
Mamoru couldn't help but see the massive underlined 45% in red. "You need to study harder, Usagi-chan."
Usagi frowned at the obvious statement, she was starting to feel very sensitive about her grades, "Thanks for pointing that out captain obvious," she almost seethed. "It's not like I'm not here to go over my paper with a classmate to help me understand what I did wrong." Tears started to well in Usagi's eyes as she turned away from Mamoru. Maybe she was just dumb like all her teachers were saying.
Mamoru could feel the young blonde's mood turn sour. He hadn't meant to make her feel bad; he just wanted to tease her for some strange reason. He had to admit to himself that her pout was adorable. He leaned closer trying to look around to her face that was turned away from him. He saw the tears in her eyes trying to escape, his heart leapt into his mouth going dry.
"Usagi-chan, p-p-please don't cry," Mamoru tried to reason with her, "I was just teasing you, I'm sorry!" he said earnestly.
A slow tear trailed down Usagi's face, "Am I really just as stupid as my teachers say?" she asked softly.
The sadness in her voice broke Mamoru's heart. He didn't know this girl very well, but he was sure that she was no idiot. "Listen Usagi-chan," Mamoru said, scooting over to sit directly next to the blonde girl, "I just met you, but I know you're not stupid at all." A thought occurred to him. "How about I help you try to go over your test until your friend gets here?" he replied gently.
Usagi sniffed and nodded. The two bent their heads down over her paper. Mamoru looked over the exam; he noticed that it wasn't that Usagi didn't know the formulas to use for the problems. She had used the correct formulas for the most part, but what seemed odd was that she had written down the numbers in the incorrect order. With the numbers in the wrong places, of course her answers would be wrong, but looking at her method, she did execute the formulas properly. A thought occurred to Mamoru.
"Usagi-chan, do you ever get dizzy or have headaches when you try to read for a long time?" Mamoru asked the blonde frowning at her paper.
She looked up at Mamoru, the frown on her face turning into confusion; she thought they were supposed to be going over her math test. Her face turned introspective at the question, "I sometimes get a headache, or sometimes I get a stomachache. My mom thinks it's because I'm trying to get out of working though."
"And from this morning, I gather you have difficulty managing time…"
Usagi pouted, "Hey, it's not my fault that…"
Mamoru continued to almost list other characteristics, "But I can also say that you must be pretty athletic to be able to run that quickly…"
"But she's also terribly clumsy," Naru voiced behind Usagi and Mamoru, coming up to them with a blushing Melvin at her side. (He had gotten stuck outside after all.)
Mamoru stroked him chin in thought. "Are you any good at arts or maybe drawing?"
Melvin piped up, "She's a fantastic artist. Her best subject is actually art. Remember that collage she made, Naru?"
Naru nodded along with Melvin words. Usagi blushed.
"Do you have a theory about Usagi's learning habits, Chiba-san?"Naru asked. There must be some kind of reason Mamoru was listing these characteristics.
Mamoru nodded to himself finally. He turned to look at the group of people curiously watching him go through his thought process. He cleared his throat, "Well, growing up I knew this boy who had very similar symptoms that Usagi has as far as academics go. He wasn't dumb or stupid, he just had a pretty short attention span for things and had a lot of energy. He also had a habit of spelling things wrong and putting his numbers in the wrong order, kind of like how Usagi did in this test."
Everyone cautiously nodded following his story.
Mamoru finally turned to Usagi to look directly at her. "Usagi-chan, has your family ever gotten you tested for ADD or maybe a learning disability?"
Usagi looked confused and horrified at the same time, "Wha-what?!" she squeaked. "So I might be even worse off than being stupid?! I'm disabled?!" she began to whine.
Mamoru shook his head, but it was Naru who replied. "It's not like that Usa-chan," she chided. "You remember how I was telling you how my little brother has been seeing a specialist because he's having a hard time learning how to speak properly?" Usagi nodded. "It's a little similar to that. It doesn't mean you're stupid. It just means that you might have to learn things differently than how they teach things at school."
"Learning disabilities are actually not as uncommon as you think, Usagi-chan," Melvin added. "Most people don't even realize that they have a learning disability, but being able to identify it will mean that we'll be able to help you learn things better."
Motoki, went up to the blonde putting his arm protectively around her, "If it means that in the long run you'll be happier, maybe it's something you should consider getting tested for it." He spoke softly so that only Usagi could hear him, "I know how frustrated and sad you've been with school since your teachers have been giving you such a hard time. If we can figure out the right way for you to learn things, you can prove to all your teachers wrong."
His sincerity about wanting her to be happy touched her heart and Usagi found herself nodding to Motoki, "Thank you Motoki-oniisan, everyone," she said looking around at her friends and newly acquired friend. "It means a lot for all of you to want the best for me," tears welled up anew in her eyes. Usagi then turned to Mamoru, "Thank you, Chiba-san, for telling me about this. I'm sorry I misunderstood you at first."
"Please, Usagi-chan, call me Mamrou," Mamoru smiled at the young teen. "It was no problem. I just hope that I helped."
...
Usagi took this new information about the possibility of a learning disability with her home as well as Naru, who had a better understanding of how these disabilities worked. The two sat down with Usagi's family and explained Mamoru's theory.
Usagi's parents were very receptive to the idea of getting her tested for a learning disability because they knew that could be the only reason she was struggling so much with school. The last parent-teacher meeting they had gone to was very frustrating for them both as Usagi's homeroom teacher had basically told them that she thought Usagi was a lost cause. Usagi had snorted when they told her about their meeting saying how Haruna-sensi only cared about when her next date would be and tormenting her for being almost late to school almost everyday. Usagi emphasized that ALMOST late, isn't late; almost was only supposed to count during horseshoes and hand grenades, right?! Her parents had to laugh at that.
The next day, Ikuko called Usagi out of school and they went to go get her tested with a specialist. It turned out that Usagi had all the classic symptoms of someone with dyslexia.
It was both a shock and a relief to find out what had been impeding Usagi's education. The specialist was able to talk to Ikuko and Usagi about what it meant to be dyslexic and what methods she could use to over come her dyslexia at school.
The family talked it over that night and they decided to do some more research about Usagi's condition. For the time being she was going to try the exercises the specialist recommended and Ikuko would be speaking with Usagi's school principal to see if her school would accommodate a girl with a learning disability.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review!