A New Beginning

The school was absolutely huge. I was amazed that the students walked around with ease. The main office had given me my schedule and a map of the school. As I looked around with a puzzled look on my face, no one bothered to help.

My parents had tried pressuring me into getting an interpreter for American Sign Language, but I refused. How could I have the courage to talk to anyone when I had an adult following me around all day? But now, I was wondering if that was the right decision.

Finally, I found my first period class; U.S. History. This was one of my best classes, so I had no problem with the amount of work or anything. The only thing that was on my mind were the people inside. How many people were going to stare at me? Was anyone going to laugh at me?

The room smelt like chalk and dust when I walked inside. There were about twenty kids my age already sitting down and chatting amongst themselves. I walked over to the man sitting at a large oak desk and assumed he was the teacher.

“Uhh,” I started to get his attention. “I’m Eli Thomas. I’m new here.” I used sign language as I spoke so he would understand I was deaf without me having to explain.

He stared at my hands and glanced at my hearing aids. He understood.

“Oh! Welcome, I’m Mr. Winters. Pick any seat in the classroom and have a seat.” He spoke slowly, which I liked since I could read his lips a lot better. But, it felt a little insulting.

My eyes flickered from Mr. Winters to an open seat towards the middle of the classroom. As I walked to my new claimed seat, a few people glanced at me. They probably haven’t seen many new faces, right? I felt my face flush as I tried not to look at anyone.

While I took my seat, the guy sitting next to me turned towards me. I looked at him and he smiled. Was he actually about to speak to me?

“Hi, I’m Nick.” Surprisingly, he used American Sign Language as he spoke.

“I’m Eli. You know ASL?” I played it cool, but deep down I was freaking out. Someone was actually talking to me.

He ran his fingers through his jet black hair and adjusted his maroon sweater. “Yeah, I had a cousin who was mute. We talked through sign language. She’s not mute anymore, but I still remember ASL.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” I smiled. He nodded and turned back to his notebook and started writing stuff down. We didn’t talk for the rest of the class. Mr. Winters shut the door and class began. My heart was fluttering in my chest. This Nick guy could be my first friend.

For the rest of the day, I continued to get lost and muddle through class. No one else talked to me besides Nick. I mean, a few teacher asked about me since I was new but that was about it. People stared at me in the hallway or when I used sign language as I spoke to teachers. But, I couldn’t help it. American Sign Language was a part of who I am and that was probably never going to change.

Eventually, it was ninth period which was the time for my lunch. Who was I going to sit with? I totally forgot about lunch periods since I usually walked home for lunch at my old school. I walked from my Chemistry class to the oversized cafeteria. There were a ton of little stations full of fruits, vegetables, and proteins. The lights were extremely dim while televisions showed news channels and slide shows of calendars and fundraiser information for the school.

There were about one hundred or two hundred kids spread throughout the lunch room. I walked through the lunch line and got fish, a cup of salad, an apple, and a milk. There was a small table in the middle of the room that was empty. That spot was calling my name. I walked over and sat down. I felt a little embarrassing sitting by myself. It just gave people a reason to assume something was wrong with me.

Fifteen minutes went by as I picked at my food. I looked up to see two guys looking at me with smug looks on their face. My stomach turned as they started walking up to me.

“So, you’re deaf?” One of them asked. I nodded in response and they laughed a little.

The other one plucked my hearing aid out of my ear. “Whoa, this is your hearing aid?”

“Y-Yeah.” I stuttered nervously. I reached over to get my hearing aid back, but the guy holding it pulled his hand back and refused to return it. “I need that.”

“No you don’t, you’re deaf. Nothing will fix that.” The first guy said harshly.

I looked down. He was wrong, but it still hurt. I was not born completely deaf, but severely deaf. I have some residual hearing which means I could hear low tones or beats, especially with my hearing aids. But, I could not hear voices without reading lips even with my hearing aids.

Suddenly, that Nick kid was standing in front of my table talking to the two guys who were hurting my feelings. I started reading his lips.

“Leave him alone.” Nick said with a stern expression on his face.

The two guys started protesting and attempted to punch Nick, but he ducked and continued to talk to them peacefully.

“Please, give him back his hearing aid and leave him alone.” Nick demanded.

The guys rolled their eyes and handed me my hearing aid. I popped it back in and looked up at Nick. He smiled and apologized for the way the two bullies had acted. He walked away and I expected to continue sitting alone. But Nick wasn’t leaving me after all! He went through the lunch line and sat down at the lunch table with me.

I looked at his tray. It was just a large container of salad, an apple, and a water.

I scrunched my eyebrows and looked at him. “Are you dieting?”

For some reason, what I said was completely hilarious to Nick. He couldn’t control himself from laughing and I had no idea why.

“No, no! I always eat this stuff.” He said between laughs.

I decided not to sign since we were using our hands to eat. I just talked and read his lips. “Why would you eat that?”

He uncapped a small container of some kind of salad dressing and started drizzling it on the crisp, green lettuce. “I don’t eat meat.”

This was something I never expected. I was a huge meat eater and it amazed me that Nick could go for the rest of his life no eating a single piece of meat.

“Not even fish?” I asked since I heard most vegetarians will eat fish.

He shook his head. “Nothing with eyes.”

“Why don’t you like meat?” I asked curiously.

He smiled and shoved a mouthful of salad into his mouth. He chewed, swallowed, and then answered my question. “I’m not a big fan of it. It just doesn’t taste good to me. Plus, I don’t agree with killing and harvesting animals for meat products. We don’t want animals to eat us, so why should we eat them?”

I never really thought about that. It made me think to myself. Nick continued to eat his salad as he watched the large flat screen television hanging on the wall. I looked around the lunchroom to see a few large tables full of classy, older, staring at him, but he ignored them.

“Why are those people staring at you?” I asked quietly. I couldn’t help it, I was curious.

He looked over at the tables of attractive students and sighed. “I usually sit over there. For some reason we’re labeled as ‘popular kids’ but I don’t see myself as being ‘popular’ because I’m just like everyone else.”

I looked down at my tray and wondered if Nick was sitting here because he wanted to, or because he felt obligated to. Maybe he wasn’t going to sit here tomorrow. I didn’t want to be disappointed.

“You don’t have to sit here.” I said quietly while staring down at my lunch tray. I was afraid to look up due to the fact that I thought Nick left as soon as I said that.

He tapped my shoulder so I would look up at him. “No, I want to sit here. We’re friends now.”

My eyes widened. Was this real life? I couldn’t believe this was happening. Someone used the word “friend” directed towards me.

“Did you say friends..?” I asked cautiously.

Nick looked at me strangely and smirked a little to himself. “Yeah, of course. You need new friends at a new school.”

He had no idea that at my past schools; I was a loner. Nick seemed so positive and caring, I liked that about him. He was kind of weird at the same time… But I liked that too. Nick asked where I was from and what Florida was like.

“I love warm weather.” Nick said in between bits of his apple.

I chugged my milk and wiped my mouth. “Have you ever been in the south?”

“Yeah, I guess. South of the globe.” I looked at him confused and he smiled. “My mom’s from Australia. I lived there until I was like four or five.”

I thought that was the coolest thing ever! I mean, I assumed he didn’t have an accent since he was so young, but it was still pretty cool. Of course, I didn’t want to freak out in front of him and scare him away, so I played it cool.

“That’s really cool. Have you ever gone back?”

“No, but my mom has for like weddings and stuff. Usually all my relatives come from Australia to states, but I’ve never gone there to see them… Huh, I guess I should.”

Suddenly, every student stood up and started walking out of the room. I didn’t understand what was going on. Nick signed, “Lunch is over,” and then picked up both our Styrofoam trays and threw them out. “What’s your next class?” He asked.

I pulled out my schedule and looked for tenth period. “Uhh… Advanced English.”

His eyes lit up. “Me too!”

We walked to class together in the hallway and continued signing to each other. A few people tried talking to Nick and they would glance at me and give him a strange look. He would roll his eyes at the disrespectful person and continue talking to me happily. He was the only person who was accepting of me. Everyone else at this school continued to judge and stare at me. But Nick was different, just like me.