Blind Rage by Michael W. Sherer

Alice had also stepped in as Tess’s tutor, and had homeschooled her, riding Tess hard so that she passed equivalency tests for junior year and kept up with her classmates throughout senior year.
    As much as she sometimes resented Alice, Tess had to grudgingly admit that Alice’s cajoling and her unrelenting focus on Tess and her studies had given Tess the impetus she needed to keep going. Tess had found some of her former drive to excel. With Alice’s help she’d even sent applications to several universities, including Brown, Stanford, Pepperdine, USC, and Cal Poly—where her parents had met. To her surprise, USC had turned her down, but she’d received her first acceptance letter from Brown. She hadn’t heard from the others yet. Stanford was her first choice, but she liked Brown.
    But a condition of attending college was proving that she could physically navigate school again in her condition. So, she was going back for the last trimester so she wouldn’t miss the experiences of a high school senior, like the prom she hadn’t attended junior year, and all the end-of-year senior traditions . . . So, fine. Now she’d be the same age as kids in her class instead of being the youngest. She’d been gone for a year . She dreaded the awkward looks, the stilted, forced conversations with the people who’d left her behind, both friends and enemies. And she was even more stressed about having to start over as the new kid again. She’d already done that, and had the scars to prove it.
    Worse, she’d just made a fool of herself. This guy Alice had hired must think she was a complete basket case.
    Soft footsteps padded into the room, followed by the faint scents of wisteria and green tea. Tess lifted her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
    “Oh, god, Yoshi. I’m such a mess,” she said.
    “You frightened, missy,” he said. “Is no shame in knowing fear, only shame in hiding from it. You must face your fear.”
    “You make it sound so easy. Try being blind for a while.” The words tasted bitter in her mouth.
    “We are all blind in our own fashion,” he said softly.
    “You? What are you afraid of?”
    “Many things, missy. But I choose not to give in, not to show my fear. Now, come. We try again.”
    “Do I have to, Yoshi? Can’t I go tomorrow? I just want to crawl back into bed.”
    “No, today a good day for school. And very handsome boy come all this way to take you there. You don’t want to disappoint him, no?”
    “He’s taking me to school because we’re paying him to. It’s not like some huge sacrifice for this guy.” She paused. “You think he’s good-looking? He’s not, like, a nerd, is he?”
    “I not have a chance to know him yet, missy. But Alice not let just anyone have job.”
    Tess sighed. “Guess you’re right. He can’t be a complete loser.”
    He’d sounded nice, too, in his interview with Alice, Tess recalled. But that didn’t mean she had to like him. Alice was forcing this on her—both going back to school and taking a chaperone with her. She sighed and let Yoshi take her hand, steadying herself as she climbed off the bed. She let him lead her downstairs once more. Halfway to the kitchen, she stopped and tugged at Yoshi’s sleeve.
    “Do I look okay?” she whispered.
    A year earlier, she’d obsessed about her appearance. It had taken her an hour to apply makeup and do her hair before school. The cupboards in her bathroom had been full of cosmetics and skin care products. Her collection of lip gloss rivaled the displays at some department stores—drawers lined with scores of colors from dozens of brands. Now it didn’t seem so important.
    “You look fine,” Yoshi reassured her.
    “Okay, let’s go.”
    Tess straightened and held her head high as Yoshi guided her the rest of the way to the kitchen.
    “Ah, good,” Alice said. “You’re here. Don’t dawdle now. Tell Rosa what you’d like for breakfast.”
    Tess turned toward the sound of a pan