Sandi's Struggle - Part 1

 

Sandi’s Struggle

Sandi Griffin was annoyed. She still had Laryngitis. And yet her mother was insistent on her going to school.

 

Her mother read what she had written. “You may not be able to speak, Sandi, but you can still learn.”

 

She wrote ‘That’s crazy.’

 

“I have called Ms. Li. She said that you can still attend school without a voice.”

 

 

Sandi arrived at school. Most people she didn’t (usually) speak to, but her friends?

 

Quinn Morgendorffer was talking about her job at Governor’s Park. “… I mean, how was I to know that she dumped that guy for the other one?”

 

“Quinn, that’s terrible!” Stacy Rowe said.

 

It wasn’t often that Sandi agreed with Stacy, but she did in this case.

 

“I know! The first guy was a lot cuter,” Quinn said. “Hey Sandi!”

 

“How are you?” Stacy asked.

 

Sandi tried to say “Hello, Quinn and others,” but no sound came out.

 

“What did you say, Sandi?” Quinn asked.

 

Sandi tried again. “I have laryngitis!”

 

“Whaaat?” Tiffany Blum-Deckler asked.

 

‘It wouldn’t make much of a difference if she was the one afflicted with this affliction!’ Sandi thought quickly and with a glare. She wrote something on a notepad and handed it to Quinn.

 

“Can’t talk, Laryngitis,” Quinn repeated. “Sandi! You lost your voice.”

 

Sandi heard Stacy inhale sharply in shock as she glared back at Quinn.

 

 

Quinn noticed Sandi’s glare. “Um, sorry. It’s just a little shocking.”

 

Sandi gave a small smile. Apology accepted.

 

“But, I don’t think I’ll be coming to Fashion Club meetings for a while.”

 

Sandi gave a look of surprise and motioned for the notepad. Quinn gave it back and Sandi wrote: Why, Qui-inn?

 

“I have found that the job at Governors Park is taking up a lot of my free time in the afternoons,” Quinn answered.

 

Sandi wrote again. We’ll discuss this later.

 

“Sure,” Quinn said.

 

 

First class was Science, where Ms. Barch had taken the opportunity provided by Sandi’s condition to further her misandrist agenda. She pointed to the blackboard where she had drawn a diagram of the human respiratory system. “Sandi, I’d like you to show me where the Larynx is,” she said.

 

Sandi glared at the teacher. ‘Quinn would be much better choice,’ she thought. She went up anyway and pointed to a spot above where the passages from the lungs connected.

 

“Very good, Sandi. That is where the sounds of our voice are usually produced. That is where you have an infection and are inflamed.”

 

Sandi frowned.

 

“I’m making a point here,” the teacher said.

 

Sandi knew what point the teacher was making, and many of the boys in the class groaned.

 

“I heard that!” Barch said. “I wish it were one of you, instead of Sandi up here. In fact, I wish that all males were mute!”

 

Sandi tapped the board, where she had pointed out the Larynx earlier.

 

“What’s that?” Barch asked.

 

Sandi grabbed the chalk and wrote: How does voice box work?

 

“I was getting to that,” the teacher said. “You can go to your desk now.”

 

Sandi breathed a sigh of relief.

 

 

“You did well up there, Sandi,” Quinn said.

 

‘Really?’ Sandi wondered. How would Quinn do if she didn’t have a voice? She realised that she wouldn’t wish it on her. She shrugged.

 

“I mean it.”

 

 

Janet Barch looked at what Sandi had written, then turned back to the class. She grabbed the ruler and used it to point at the larynx on the diagram. “The voice box works by the vocal chords vibrating as air moves over them. However, infection can occur such that they can become swollen and stop vibrating for a time.”

 

She saw Sandi nod in understanding.

 

“Now, open your textbook to page 145. Not to page 178, Joey!”

 

 

Sandi came out of the classroom annoyed. Ms. Barch didn’t need to call her up in front of the class! That was a very embarrassing experience. She would write a note to Ms. Li. ‘I will do that!’

 

 

After her next class, she wrote the note and went to Ms. Li’s office.

 

 

“Come in, Ms. Griffin,” Angela said.

 

Sandi took a seat and placed a note on the desk.

 

Angela read it. “I see.”

 

Sandi crossed her arms.

 

“Ms. Barch is good at what she does, Ms. Griffin!”

 

Sandi wrote something.

 

Angela read it. “I’m well aware of her views of males. The grades of various males in her classes are unaffected. You think that Mrs. Morgendorffer wouldn’t have found out by now if it was otherwise?”

 

 

Sandi had to agree with that, remembering the time earlier in the spring when she had tried to get her to sue that caricature artist.

 

She wrote; I see.

 

“Is that all?” the principal asked.

 

Sandi nodded.

 

 

The rest of the day went by smoothly. As smoothly as it could while one couldn’t speak, anyway.

 

“Is there a Fashion Club meeting?” Tiffany asked.

 

Sandi shook her head. She then wrote something.

 

“Not today?”

 

Sandi shook her head.

 

“Oh.”

 

She wrote something.

 

“Another day?” Tiffany asked after reading.

 

Sandi nodded.