(Elias)
I stepped out of Avery’s classroom and into the hall. The noise hit me right away. Students laughed, talked, and hurried from one room to another. Lockers opened and shut, sneakers scraped against the floor, and phones lit up in hands.
I walked slowly, letting the movement of the hall push me along. Still, my mind stayed in that classroom with her. Avery had not flinched. She had not looked scared, not even with so many eyes on her. That was her. She always stood taller than people thought she would.
I thought back to the first time I tried to teach her little ways to move around without drawing too much attention. Small things to help her when the world wanted to be cruel. Watching her now, I knew she had outgrown all of that. She was not just surviving here. She was making peo
