Chapter 1: The Girl by the Wall
I had spent years living inside the silence that followed the accident.
When I was ten, a fire took my parents and left me unable to walk. People always spoke about it carefully, as if my life were made of glass. Teachers lowered their voices around me. Neighbors smiled with pity. Classmates treated my wheelchair like a wall they didn’t know how to cross.
So when prom came, I decided to go.
Not because I expected magic. Not because I believed the night would change anything. I went because some stubborn part of me wanted one evening where I was not just the girl from the tragedy.
But as music filled the decorated gym and couples spun beneath silver lights, I sat near the wall, hands folded in my lap, feeling more invisible than ever.
Then a boy named Daniel walked toward me.
And with one gentle smile, he asked, “Would you dance with me?”