“Cole Brent? The doctor will see you now,” and the nurse walks away. Cole’s mom stands up,

     “Cole, come on, take your headphones out, the doctor is ready,” she grabs her purse and walks into the office. Cole, a brown haired boy with green eyes takes his headphones out and follows behind her. He is of average height but with a lean body and big dimples in his cheek. When they get to the office a bald, middle aged man gets up from behind his desk,

     “Good afternoon, I’m Dr. Lee, you must be Cole,” the doctor extends a hand and Cole shakes it.

     “Hi, I’m Cole's mom, Sherryn, nice to meet you,” His mom shakes his hand and takes a seat. The doctor returns to his desk and says,

     “I’m glad you guys could make it out here, I know you guys made a long drive,” Sherryn replies,

     “Of course, we heard great things about you, we hope you can help,” The doctor then gets up and walks over to the eye examiner, he says,

     “Okay, well Cole if you could step up here to the blue tape, and cover your right eye please,” Cole puts his hand over his right eye and stands on the taped line, Cole thinks, This is so stupid, I’m standing on this ratty, blue tape and this doctor is going to diagnose me the same as all the other doctors. Dyslexia.

     “Okay Cole, you’re going to say the letter I point to,” the doctor explains as he steps beside a sight testing board. Cole gives the doctor a sarcastic thumbs up and looks at the letter. The doctor points to a W. It’s a M. “Cole furrows his brows and says,

     “M,” the doctor gives him a slight nod and points to another letter, Z. Cole looks at it for a minute and says,

     “S,” the doctor gives him another nod and says,

     “Okay last one, what letter is this?” the doctor points to a lower case b.

     “Ugh I don’t know a d?” Cole exclaims evidently annoyed. The doctor then writes a few things down and ushers Cole’s mom into his office and says,

     “Cole you can head back into the waiting room,” Cole just turns away and puts his earbuds back in.

Dyslexia, a difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. There’s no medical treatment, but it can improve with exercises. Stupid. Why did we drive 3 hours just to hear the same thing we would back in San Francisco. Coles mom walks out and shakes the doctor's hand. She walks over to Cole and says,

     “Cole, the doctor diagnosed you with Extreme Dyslexia-”

     “Of course, that is the exact same thing all the other doctors said! I told you this was a waste of time, and let me guess, there is no medicine I can take, but there is plenty of exercises I can do!” Cole says redundantly and walks away.

     “Cole! Stop!” Cole’s mom says as she runs after him. Cole gets to the car and sits in the passenger seat. Cole’s mom gets in the driver’s seat and lets out a breath,

     “Cole, I know this has been hard, but this doctor recommended some great exercises and doctors who specialize in dyslexia... ” Cole doesn’t say anything so she continues “We can look into them when we get home,” Cole just continues staring out the car window. Coles mom gives a defeated sigh and starts the car. They drive back to the hotel in silence, once they arrive Cole's mom looks at him and says,

     “Okay, we leave in the morning so have all of your belongings packed,” Cole just walks into the lobby and heads up to the room. The next morning Cole packs up the car and his mom doesn’t try to start a conversation. As they drive home Cole reads the signs on the road, Speed Limit 50 MPH, Zeeb Liwit 50 WPH...UGH, why can’t my brain just work?! A small tear runs down Cole’s check but he immediately wipes it away. Once they get home it was very late so Cole unlocks their apartment and goes straight to his room and falls asleep. Cole's mom stays up late doing more research on the dyslexia specialists. Cole drove to school the next day and his friends came up to him,

     “So man, how was Fresno? Did your grandma turn you soft?” James says with a laugh. Cole just chuckles and goes to his locker. He pulls out his English Readiness book, How embarrassing, I’m a junior in english help. Then there's an announcement over the PA, Can Cole Brent please come to the office, Cole Brent. Cole closes his locker and heads down the hallway towards the office. Once Cole arrives to the office he sits down in one of the chairs. Then the receptionist motions for him to come into the principal's office. Cole walks in and sees a girl sitting across from the principal, she has stormy grey eyes and auburn hair with a backpack by her feet. She is a pretty girl with a slim complex yet has a sense of wildness to her. The principle says,

     “Ah Cole, this is Thea, Thea meet Cole. Thea is a new student here and I was hoping you could show her around the school. She just got her schedule so you can show her all of her classes,” Cole looks at the principal, then Thea,

     “Uh yeah, sure,” The principal stands up and says  

     “Great, well Thea, I hope you like San Francisco High!” and Cole and Thea walk out. At first neither one of them say anything, Cole breaks the silence,

     “Can I see you schedule?” Cole asks and hold out his hand. Thea hands him his schedule and Cole realizes he has made a big mistake, but it’s too late now. So, Cole takes a breath and looks at her schedule, Junior English- Codi, Theatre- Bridges, Senior Math- Inbody… Jnmior emgizh- Dobi, ugh why did I do this. I can’t tell her I’m dyslexic, that’s so embarrassing. Ugh! What do I do? Just think, think. Then, Cole’s friend, Brandon, comes up to him, he has a varsity letterman jacket on and a movie star worthy smile. He runs his hand through his dirty blonde hair and says, 

     “Hey bro how was Fresno- woah who’s this chick,” Brandon says pointing towards Thea. Cole glares at him and Thea answers,

     “This chick, is Thea, who are you exactly?” Cole laughs under his breath and tries to cover it up with a cough when Brandon looks at him.

     “Brandon, but you can call me Mr. Amazing, or The Best Person Ever, whatever you prefer,” Brandon says as he winks at her. “So you new here? Cause I know Mr. Perfect Attendance over here isn’t skipping second period,” Brandon points at Cole and Cole just looks down at his feet.

     “Come on Thea, I’ll show you to your classes,” Cole says as he motions down the hallway.

     “Woah slow down Turbo, lets see Thea’s classes,” Brandon grabs Thea’s schedule from Cole’s hands and looks at it, “Mhm, Junior English with Codi, sweet we have the same period. Oh wow we got a theatre girl here, watch out, I hear Bridges is mean. Woah, you’re in senior math, so is Cole, huh Cole?” Brandon nudges Cole. Cole just gives him an annoyed smile. Ugh, I’m kinda glad Brandon came and saved me from reading her schedule. At least I’m good at one thing, math. I’m so glad my stupid brain reads numbers right, the doctors say I’m lucky but I don’t know, I wish I could read one sentence. Cole snaps out of his haze when Brandon says, “So, Thea… where you from?” Thea just grabs her schedule back and glares at him. “Woah okay, mysterious past, got it. Can I at least get your number, you know, in case you have a question about school,” Thea puts his number in his phone and hands it back to him. “Well, I better get back to Linders, she said if I ditch her class one more time I have a detention with her, no thanks,” Brandon says and turns away, “See you later Miss Mysterious,” and he walks away.

     “So, did I hear Brandon say you were at Fresno?” Thea asks Cole as they continue down the hallway.
     “Um, uh yeah,” Cole says and looks away.

     “Okayyyyy,” Thea replies and looks down at her schedule. “Well here’s my number, I would like you to have it because if I have a question, I will definitely be asking you,” She hands him her number and asks, “Is the theatre teacher that bad?” Cole says,

     “I don’t know, I’ve never had her. Oh, here’s your third period,” Cole gestures to the classroom to their right. Thea puts her schedule in her backpack and starts to walk in,

     “Uh, thanks Cole. I’d be lost without your help,”

     “No problem, see you in fifth,” Cole says and starts to walk away

     “See you in math… Fresno,” Thea says and gives him a grin. Cole just rolls his eyes and walks away. Once Thea’s class end she makes her way towards math and she runs into another girl,

      “Watch it loser!” A petite blonde with big blue eyes glares at Thea. “Woah, who’s the new freak? Jeez, stay out of my way,” and she storms away.

     “Um okay, whatever,” Thea says and she walks into math. She spots Cole and grabs a seat next to him.
     “So you had a run in with Audrey huh?” Cole says and gives her a smile.

     “Yeah, that girl is crazy, definitely not running into her again,”

     “That’s smart, except she’s dating your new bestie,” Cole explains and pulls out his notebook.

     “Brandon is dating her?!” Cole just shrugs and says,

     “Yeah, we all say he should break up with her, but he doesn’t listen,” Just then the teacher walks in and starts his lesson for the day. When the bell rings Thea packs up her bag and heads to the theatre. As Thea walks into the theatre she grabs a seat next to a strawberry blond boy.

     “Hey, my name is James, you new here?” James says with a smile.

     “Oh, um yeah, my name is Thea,”

     “Cool, well welcome to theatre,” James says and sets down his bag.

     “So, is the teacher here that bad, I heard she is mean?” Thea asks.

     “Eh, she just wants all of our shows to be perfect, but-” James is cut off by Mrs. Bridges, the theatre teacher.

     “Good morning class, we have a new student today, Thea. Everyone welcome her to our class. Now, for today you can work on your monologues and auditions, auditions are in a couple of weeks!” Thea turns to James,

     “Auditions for what?”

     “The upcoming play, Wizard of Oz, you should audition for Dorothy,” James responds.

     “Yeah, I don’t think so, I’ll just be a munchkin or something,” Thea says to James. He responds with,
     “Nope, I bet you’re amazing. I am signing you up for Dorothy right now,” James gets up and goes towards the audition sheet. Thea quickly hurries after him and grabs the pencil out of his friend right after he finishes writing down her name.

      “Nope, I’m not cut out for Dorothy,” Thea looks at the rest of the list and sees that Audrey is auditioning for Dorothy too. “Actually, keep my name, I’ll show Audrey,”

     “That’s the spirit, now let's find you an audition piece,” James motions for Thea to follow him and they spend the rest of the period finding the right monologue.

      Thea gets through the rest of her classes with ease and once the final bell rings she goes to find her locker. After a good 10 minutes of searching Brandon comes up to her,

      “Hey, looking for something?” and he flashes his flirty smile. Thea just rolls her eyes and responds with,
      “Yeah, my locker, its 56A, but I have no idea how this school works,”

      “No way! My locker is like right next to yours, c’mon I’ll show you,” Thea follows him to her locker. “Here it is, and mines a couple lockers down. You’re one lucky girl, having a locker right next to me, people would kill for this,” Brandon says with a wink. Thea rolls her eyes again and mumbles,

      “Audrey might kill me,” and opens her locker. Once she puts her books in her locker she asks Brandon,

      “So… Cole told me you’re with Audrey?”

      “Oh wow, so you were asking about me, huh?” James says with a smirk.

     “Definitely not, she showed me some San Francisco High love and called me a loser. I really do love this school,” Thea says with a fake smile. James looks sheepishly at her,

      “Yeah, sorry about that. She’s better when you know her,”

      “Oh yeah, I’m sure. I’ll grab lunch with her and we can gossip and talk about boys. Then she will invite me over for a slumber party!” Thea says with a very sarcastic tone. James responds,

      “Oh my god, am I invited?” with even more sarcasm. Thea laughs and says,

      “For sure! Come along, we have a nail appointment at 3 and we can’t be late!” Brandon just laughs harder and soon Thea joins in. Their laughing is cut short by someone clearing their throat loudly behind them. Thea turns around and sees Audrey glaring at her.

      “Hey Audrey, Brandon was just telling me all about you. I would say that I’m excited to get to know you, but you kinda seem like a brat, so I’ll pass. See you at auditions! Toodles!” Thea blows her a kiss and walks away. A couple of minutes later her phone bings with a text and she pulls out her phone. Not funny Thea, I wanted you guys to be friends. Thea replies with, I’m guessing this is Brandon, but c’mon that was funny. She called me a freak and a loser, I don’t think we were destined to be besties. A couple of seconds go by before Brandons texts back. Maybe not best friends, but I would like for you guys to be cool with each other. Thea lets out an annoyed sigh and begins to type. Have you even talked to Audrey about this, I’m pretty sure this is the only thing we can agree on.  Anyways, I have to go, I have a lot of homework.  Thea gets into her car and her phone rings, she looks down and sees a call from an unknown number.

     “Hello?”

     “Hey Thea, it's Cole, I was wondering if you wanted to meet at Bennet’s? It’s the coffee shop by school. I figured you might need some help on your homework,”

     “Yeah, that would be great, I’ll be there in 10, see you there,” Thea replies and ends the call. She sees a text from Brandon I was going to talk to Audrey, but she got angry and stormed off. Well, good luck on your homework. Thea just rolls her eyes and starts her car. Once she gets to Bennet’s she pulls into a parking space and gets out. She walks in and sees Cole sitting at a table reading a book.

     “Hey Fresno, what’s up?”

     “Can you stop calling me Fresno? Ny name is Cole,” Thea looks and him and sits down.

     “Fresno sounds better, but anyways, can you help me with math? I am so confused and it's only been one day,” Thea asks and pulls out her math book.

     “Yeah, I’ll get us some coffee,” Cole replies and goes up to the counter. They spend the next two hours doing their math homework and just talking about life. Thea finally asks what has been on her mind,

     “Hey, um what’s the deal with Brandon and Audrey? Does Brandon even like her?” Cole looks up from his work and answers,

     “Well, I don’t even know anymore. I’m pretty sure he just doesn’t want to hurt her, she’s emotional,”

     “That’s no excuse, come on, what's the real reason?” Thea asks.

     “I-I can’t say, I’m sorry. It’s Brandon’s choice to tell you, not mine,” Cole replies and looks down at his homework. Thea is annoyed by his response but decides to drop the subject. I’ll just ask Brandon, hopefully he will be more helpful. They finish their homework and Thea leaves Bennet’s. When she gets in the car she decides to call Brandon. She dials up his number and the line rings twice before Brandon picks up,

     “Hello?”

     “Hey, it’s Thea, um-”

     “Thea, I’m glad you called. I was doing some thinking and I understand where you’re coming from. I want to explain it to you in person, can you meet up right now?” Brandon asks over the phone.

     “Uh, yeah sure. Where?”

     “There’s a park a block from my house, on 2nd and Yale Street. Meet me at the swings,” With that Brandon ends the call. Thea heads towards the park and when she gets there, she sees Brandon sitting on one of the swings.

     “Hey stranger,” Thea says and sits down on the swing next to him.

     “Hey Miss Mysterious, welcome to Greenway Park,” Thea looks around, there’s not much, just a slide, some monkey bars, and a seesaw.

     “So, what did you want to tell me?”

     “The real reason why I’m still dating Audrey, and look, you’re probably going to say it’s stupid but it could be serious,” Thea just nods and pushes herself slightly in the swing. “I tried to break up with her once, it didn’t go well. She freaked out and started to say that she was going to kill herself and a bunch of other threats. It was bad, because I’m pretty sure she was being serious,” Thea keeps her gaze down, then looks at him and says,

     “Wow, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. But, you should tell someone, like her mom or the principle I don’t know. You also need to break up with her, What you’re doing is wrong and leading her on like this is just avoiding the inevitable,”

     “I know, but I don’t know how,” Brandon says and lets out a sigh.

     “Just sit her down and explain it to her, maybe she will understand now?”

     “Yeah, maybe. I guess I’ll see. I’m going to tell her tomorrow, no point putting it off now,” Brandon exclaims. They both continue to sit there, enjoying the silence. Finally, Thea looks at the time, 9:36.

     “Shoot, I got to get home, but tomorrow do you want me to give you a ride to school? Just to make it a little easier,” Brandon gives her a sad smile and nods,

     “Yeah, that’d be great, thanks,” The next morning Thea picks Brandon up and they drive to school. Once they reach school Thea and Brandon get out, Thea looks at him,

     “I’ll be at my locker after school so I can take you home, and tell me how it goes,” Brandon nods and heads off to class. After school Thea gets to her locker and puts her books away. Just as she closes her locker someone yells at her,

     “You! You made Brandon break up with me! Who do you think you are?!” Audrey screams at her, her mascara already smudged from prior crying.

     “Woah, calm down. Brandon broke up with you on his own, now don’t make a scene. You’ve embarrassed yourself enough,” Thea says quietly.

     “No way! You just want Brandon for yourself! Go ahead, I’m done with him and I’m done with you,” then Audrey stomped away. Brandon comes up behind Thea,

     “Hey, so as you can see it didn’t go well…”

     “Yeah, I can tell, but I think she will get over herself soon,” Thea starts to walk towards her car and Brandon follows.

     “Is it bad that I feel relieved? Like I broke her heart but I’m glad it’s over,” Brandon says as he gets in the car. Thea starts up the car and pulls out of the school.

     “It’s not bad, you did the right thing,” They continue the drive home in silence.

     They next day at school Cole goes up to Thea before math class,

     “Hey, I heard Audrey confronted you after the break-up, you good?”

     “Yeah, she was being dramatic that’s all, I’m over it,” Thea replies and sits down in math.

     “Okay cool, I’m glad Brandon finally ended it, when he told me that he was going to break up with Audrey I was relieved,” Cole says and grabs the seat next to her.

     “Yeah, same here,” Then the bell rings and class starts.

     The rest of the week goes by smoothly, no raging Audreys and Thea has been practicing for her audition. At lunch the day before Thea’s audition, Audrey walks onto the band stage in the middle of the lunch quad. No one really notices, because everyone just got out to go to lunch. Thea, Brandon, and Cole are all talking when Audrey yells into the microphone on stage,

      “Brandon Walker! Thea Grey! Cole Brent! You are the cause of this, you three ruined my life. I had everything and my life was great. You three left me with nothing! My boyfriend broke up with me, my mom took my sister and I from my deadbeat alcoholic dad and now he’s suing for custody! I got kicked off the cheer team and flunked out of math! ” Audrey’s sobbing as she speaks and her mascara runs down her face. “My friends, my teammates, my boyfriend, my grades, and family are all gone! It’s all gone and I had to say goodbye so, now you do too,” With this she unzips her jacket and a homemade bomb is strapped to her, and she reveals a small remote in her hand. The lunch quad erupts with chaos, people start to scream but Audrey yells over them. “NO ONE MOVE! Or I will press this button, ending it all,” Her voice cracks as she says it, and continues to shake and cry as she says, “There’s nothing left for me, so I’ll leave nothing left behind,”

     “Audrey! Stop!” Cole says “Why are you doing this? I tried to help you, you don’t have to do this!” Cole takes tentative steps forward as he continues talking. “You have so much to live for! You have your mom and your little sister! Would you leave your seven year old sister behind? Could you press that button knowing she’s expecting you to come home today?” Cole is now on the far end of the stage, holding his hands out like he’s trying to calm a wild dog. “It may seem hard now, but suicide does not end the chance of life getting worse, it eliminates the chance of life getting better,” By now Cole is an arm reach away and is now extending his hand towards her.

     “That’s the thing… my life will be better,” and she presses the button. Cole lunges at her and yells,
     “AUDREY!”

    “COLE!” Thea yells.

    “GET DOWN!” Brandon screams and dives towards Thea and knocks her down behind a big oak tree. Then everything goes black.

     6 months later

     Thea, wearing a black and white vertical striped pantsuit and black heels walks on stage. Click, click, click her heels make with every step. Once she reaches the stand she looks down at the speech she wrote, crumples it up, and begins to talk,

     “6 months ago, Cole Brent was killed by an unstable classmate named Audrey Parks, who thought she had lost everything. She thought that the only option was to end her life, and along with that she ended Cole’s. I am here to tell you that we need change. Audrey used a C16-D chemical, that is extremely dangerous when mixed with the right substance, to make a homemade bomb that has the power to wipe out an entire city block. Yet, it is legal in California and other states in the US. We were lucky that Audrey did not use the correct amount, I received a major concussion and a dislocated collarbone. My friend Brandon is recovering from 3 broken ribs and a broken arm, he is out of football for the rest of high school. But, we are lucky. Can you believe it? We were lucky. Cole was not. He was one foot from the bomb and died instantly, he-” Thea chokes and begins to cry. “He died trying to stop Audrey. So yes, I am the lucky one, but I didn’t feel lucky,” Thea stops and wipes the tears of her cheeks. “I refused to eat, sleep, or go to school for two weeks. Then I thought of Cole, how I needed to be strong for him. So I got up, and now, here I am. There are millions of stories like mine across the world. The chemical C16-D needs to be illegal. How many more deaths will it take? How many more suicides? Do you need more funerals? No, you want more money. Making this chemical illegal will cost you $1.6 million dollars, but you know what your chemical has cost me?! 200 hours of therapy, 14 days of almost no sleep, because everytime I closed my eyes, I saw Cole. 12 pounds lost from not eating, 10 absences from school, 6 missed tests, 4 panic attacks, 3 grief counselors, 2 worried parents...1 best friend. So, who has lost more? I will not sit around letting this injustice happen. We must stand up and speak out!” This leads to the loudest applause Thea has ever heard, and with the she walks off stage. Brandon is waiting for her, his eyes watering and arms open. Thea hugs him tight and breaks down. She releases loud, heartbreaking sobs and Brandon pulls her in closer. Once Thea’s breath has calmed down, Brandon keeps his arm around her and leads her to his car. He helps her in and with that gets in and drives away. Leaving behind the pain and sorrow, and just drives.