Chapter Text
Move your body, move your body, I sang in the shower. I shook my head to the beat of Sia’s newest sick beat. My hands held onto the sides of my chair, though. Last time I listened to Sia this hard, I fell off, and Charlie said no more music in the shower if it happened again.
“YOUR BODY’S POET REE!-”
“Calm down, Bella!” Charlie’s gruff voice called from downstairs. “I’m taking an important call.”
I huffed. But finally turned off the water. “No sense showering if I can’t sing,” I muttered to myself, irked.
After transferring myself into my wheelchair, drying off and changing into my pj’s, I finally hit the pause button on my ipod.
“The T.V is MINE!” I reminded the police chief as I descended from the stair lift. He was nowhere near the cheap box t.v., but still, this was necessary. “The USA Dance National is on at 6:00.” I placed bets on Angelina Zelenova and whoever her partner was. No way was I going to miss it. I didn’t trust Jordie not to rob me blind after last time I missed it, but he was the only one I knew who was willing to put big money on this. I was winning 60 dollars today.
From the kitchen, still on the phone, Charlie narrowed his eyes at me, pressing a finger to his lips.
I rolled my eyes. I snatched my new Lucky Charms cereal and rolled myself in my place in front of the t.v. Usually, I got myself down on the mat and sat down criss-cross applesauce, since my shrink said it was no good to stay in the chair all the time. But I was in a hurry.
Opened Lucky C. Popped a few of the hearts in my mouth and with my unoccupied hand, pressed down on channel 44 from muscle memory. The crimson lights of the dancer’s opulent costumes–the paso doble, so latin style–shone across my delighted features. I didn’t take my eyes off the t.v. until 8:00.
When 8:00 came around, I calmly pressed the shut down button.
“Bella.” Charlie came around and bent to pick up the remote. “How was–?”
“Atrocious!” I back-slapped the cereal box which was previously standing on the carpet. Charlie watched in dismay as a bunch of little sugary pebbles littered his carpet.
I began furiously eating them off the floor. “Angelina was off her game. Whoever-the-fuck carried the whole show for the both of them–nice footwork–but since he has terrible stage presence, they were forgotten by the judges.” She shook her head. “I thought I had it in the bag.”
“Well, now. I’m sure…next time, you’ll get it right.” The sports commentators began talking, and Charlie was only there for the baseball game. He turned to me, and despite my haze of anger, I took a moment to appreciate him sitting on the carpet with me. He spoke to me, and we were the same height.
“It’s not just about that,” I whined. “I wish I could just bet on myself instead of tracking other people. I wouldn’t even have to bet on anyone, if I could only just…” My voice trailed off.
“Bella…y’know it’s not possible–”
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” I struggled to put myself back on my chair. Also struggled when I bent to get my cereal. Luckily, Charlie never so much as twitched to help me. “I don’t need another sesh with Doctor Shrink to know my dreams are impossible.”
I rolled back to the stairs.
However, when you can’t run up to your room super quickly and must make do with being lifted up at the speed of a tortoise, making dramatic exits was pretty hard.