Skeletons in the Closet and Old Friends

[Charlie Vasilyev]

"I um...I can't read...understand the instructions. " Charlie mumbled feeling a wave of embarrassment as she watched Kyle's fingers tap gently and then turned back to the worksheet careful to avoid eye contact with her old friend.

Charlie pressed her tongue between her lips as she looked at the words. Her mind was wandering again.

Did Kyle remember she was dyslexic? She'd been diagnosed at the age of 8 midway through third grade. Kyle had been really cool about it. Even before then on winter or stormy nights when they'd hang out Kyle would read out loud while Charlie listened and did something with her hands. It wasn't long books Kyle read they were in elementary school after all. It was mostly short stories. After she was diagnosed for the rest of the school year Kyle had helped her a lot. She remembered how nice it'd been to listen to him read.

Charlie's eyes were wandering around the room again because her mind was a thousand miles away so to speak.

 

[Wolfiethehybrid123]

Kyle nodded when Charlie said she could read the instructions, he remembered her dyslexia, he remembered how he would read to her to help and explain stuff when he was younger. God how he missed those day. "Alright, how about this, I'll read through the instructions with you and you can follow along with the reading. Then I'll explain the first activity, answer any more questions you might have and then leave you to your work. If you have anymore questions or need any help you just need to put your hand up and I'll come over and help." He gave a small smile and pulled the folded worksheet her had been carrying around in his pocket.

Kyle read through the instructions slowly and carefully, giving Charlie a few moments afterwards to digest the information, he also explained a few of the more complicated words that had been in there. Then he took the time to explain the first activity, he went through what the different parts of a sentence were and how you recognized those parts of a sentence, then stayed silent so Charlie could speak.

 

[Charlie Vasilyev]

Charlie listened trying to follow along with her finger on her own paper. She nodded as Kyle explained the first activity though she could feel her heart sink. How was she supposed to diagram and label sentences she could barely read? She'd never get this done before the bell rang!

Charlie read the first sentence in her head reading it a couple times slowly and mouthing the words to try to understand it

Richard was afraid of the clown even though it was just his uncle in costume.

"How do I diagram a sentence?" She asked sounding confused as she tapped her neck with the pencil. She looked for an example on the explanation sheet, but she couldn't decipher it. It just looked like a bunch of lines and words written under and above the actual sentence.

Charlie looked at the rest of the paper. There was so much to do...she'd never get it done! She retread the sentence she had to diagram and looked at the example trying to compare them, but only feeling more lost. Maybe she shouldn't have asked for help she was only wasting Kyle's time and tanking away help from others.

"I'm sorry." She muttered feeling bad about taking up all of the TA's time.