Amy Knuttila
Mr. Celenza-English9
Friday 21 May 2021

Sounds of Science

Hi. I’m Anya. I look like a normal 15-year-old girl: about 5 feet tall, mocha eyes, auburn hair reaching for my shoulders, if you were wondering. Just an average teenager. Or am I? Let me tell you my story…

I wake up to the sound of something very close to me. The clock on my bedroom wall says its 5 a.m. “You’ve got to be kidding. Ugh!”. My uncle has been visiting my family for a few days and set his alarm clock for an early flight. He obviously forgot to turn it off before he left for the airport. I can hear the alarm’s “Cock-a-doodle-doo!!, cock-a-doodle-doo!!” sound from somewhere below me. Guess I’m up now.

First day of high school! A fresh start to things, a chance to make some friends. I quickly dressed into my new clothes beryl jeans and a pearl colored t-shirt. “I got this.”

I walk up the cement stairs towards the building’s front doors. The door swings open automatically, as if to welcome me. I look at the schedule I printed the night before. Yes! Science is my favourite. I walk into my classroom then look back down to see that my next class is… P.E. Yes! Things couldn’t get better. The science teacher, Mr. Benbow, comes in and says good morning to the class. Before he tells us what we’re going to learn, he shares an important announcement with us. It’s about an upcoming science camp happening over the fall break. There will be more details at the assembly tomorrow. But I’ve already heard about the camp. It’s invitation only though, so students need to have good marks in their classes to get in. A famous researcher, Dr. Grady. I was influenced by this researcher, when I read his book last summer, “The World Within”. A fascinating look inside our bodies.

A few minutes later… “Pop Quiz!” my science teacher says. “I hope I can do this” I say to myself. Science is my favourite subject. “You have 20 minutes to answer 10 questions. I just want to get an idea of how much you know. Please put your name at the top of the page, once I give you your sheet of paper. You may now begin.” The science teacher says.

Twenty minutes? I don’t know if I can do this. I begin to read; “Explain what H₂O is and what it….” I hear a bunch of voices, down the hallway. “I know, right? I wish Mr. Benbow didn’t give us so much homework already!” I look up at the clock, 15 minutes left. I skip questions 2 and 3, moving onto 4. I hear it again. This time it sounds like it’s coming below me; “Oh my gosh. No way you got that scrunchie for only two bucks. Mine was so expensive!!” I look to the clock again. Eight minutes left. I finish question 4 and skip 5. I take out my sound-proof headphones my parents gave me, and put them on. It’s not working! I can hear right through it! It feels like there are no longer any walls to block out all the noise. The sounds are crowding in on me! Laughter here, pencils scratching papers, faucets dripping, hand dryers turning on and off in washrooms, chips being crunched, teachers explaining their lessons, whiteboard markers screaming as they’re being dragged onto the board, tick-tocks of seconds turning into minutes, turning into seconds, turning into— “Times up! Pencils down.” I snap my head around to see the science teacher collecting the papers. I look down at mine and gasp. So many blanks waiting to be filled. Questions longing to be answered. Nooo! I’m not finished!! Mr. Benbow comes up to my desk. I reluctantly hand him my paper. I take my headphones off as well.

Lunch time rolls around. I see a group of girls having a conversation. It sounds like they are talking about the science camp. Everyone knows that there will be a famous science researcher at the camp. It sounded like the girl who was talking about it, was Nora. Some students from science told me that Nora’s mom was a teacher at the school. She tells Nora a little secret… that Dr. Grady is going to be at the assembly tomorrow! Finally something I can talk about! I smile hesitantly at Nora and the group of girls she’s chatting with, hoping she notices and invites me over.  She sees me and that’s when I decide to say, “It’s so cool that the science researcher is going to be here tomorrow!” Everyone looks at me oddly. I look back at Nora, and she’s mad. “How did you know? Were you spying on us?”. Brrrrriing!! The bell rings. I pack up my things and leave the classroom.

The next day. Looks like I have P.E. Thank goodness. I hope Nora isn’t there after what happened yesterday. That was embarrassing. The P.E. teacher comes in and says were going to be doing basketball today, but she’ll be pairing us up in partners. As we are being partnered up, I see a girl coming in. Nora. The P.E. teacher sees her too and says, “Anya. You can be partners with Nora for today’s class”. Great. “Hey blurt face! Guess you’re with me today.”. Can things get any worse?

My class follows the P.E. teacher out to the basketball courts, where we practice some throwing back and forth with our partners. As Nora chucks the basketball to me, I feel that she’s putting in too much force. I pass back to her, and that’s when I hear a noise. I turn around, my back to Nora. As she gets ready to throw at me I don’t see her aiming for my head. I hear a big whoosh. Hurtling its way towards me with a look of vengeance upon its face. I look back and WHAP! The last thing I see as the darkness closes around me, is Nora’s lips forming a thin smile on her face…

I wake up in a hospital room and feel a big pain coming from my head. I grasp bits of conversation here and there.

“Hmm? Yeah, I see it too….”

“Well, I don’t know how she’s going to react…”

“How long has this been going on for?…”

“It’s quite a big bump…”

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this before..”

(The science researcher is meeting with other medical doctors at the hospital, so he stops in to see me because of his connection to the school.) The doctors are obviously concerned about the huge egg on my skull. When they re-enter the room, they tell me my x-rays show a fracture which they think will heal. They tell me their bigger concern is the soft tissue damage. They want to see if my hearing is affected. So, they test.

“I think we need a brain specialist to check this out… but who?”

“Wait, is Dr. Grady still here? I think we might be able to get his attention for this if he hasn’t left the building yet. Wasn’t he just demonstrating his research in the lab?”

While the doctors are getting their equipment ready, I start answering “beeps, buzzing, fly’s wings beating together, eggs hatching in a tree” but the doctors say they have not started yet. The doctors are still resetting the machine from the previous experiment they were doing with the science researcher. Somehow, they realized that I’m hearing sounds I shouldn’t be able to hear. So the researcher tries more. An hour later, he is amazed. He goes off to talk to my P.E. teacher. I can hear them talking, “she has an amazing sense of hearing! I’ve never met a child with such a capability…” The researcher is inviting Anya to come to the camp so he can have her help illustrate his experiments on sound and human hearing. I hear the researcher making his way back to the room I’m in. When he comes in, I’m already grinning from ear to ear. “Science camp, here I come!”.

Mr. Grady, the famous researcher makes me a set of headphones to try out. They feel like small pillows made of cotton in my ears. I use it for my next science test. “Is this how normal people hear? It’s so different from what I hear.” I finish my test and hand it in. Over the next week, the headphones are helping me and my marks are going sky-high! I started getting A’s, and the swelling on my head was a minor bump now, but the fracture is still mending itself. Things are going swell. I thought at first that I was just inarticulate and gawky. I’m not. I’m just a unique person. The best acceptance is accepting yourself. It’s about discovering and embracing the unique you.

Story Influences: Focused– Alyson Gerber (book), Percy Jackson & The Lightning Bolt (movie), and my life!