I felt everybodies eyes on me as I shuffled into the classroom behind one of the office ladies who had kindly offered to show me to my tutor room.
"Mr Dempsey? I have your new student," Karen informed the man standing at the front of the class.
He seemed pretty nice and I would guess he was in his mid fourties - early fifties. He had black hair that was pushed back messily into a sorta quiffy mess, but it suited him and looked good. A faint sprinkling or stubble lined his jaw where he obviously hadn't shaved for a little while - probably to busy looking after his kids (he looked like he had kids). He was dressed quite smartly wearing a white shirt and black tie but still had a relaxed look, his shirt being a little crumpled adding to the caring fatherly image.
"Well hello! Welcome to our tutor! Would you like to introduce yourself to the class?" he said enthusiastically, showing off his pearly whites. I smiled back, trying not to show my nerves.
"Oh don't be nervous! We're all a big family in here," he said, probably noticing my silence and not knowing the reason for it. I looked at Karen, wondering if she would tell him. She looked back at me and suddenly realized what she'd forgot to mention. Mr Dempsey was looking at us with a confused look on his face.
"Oh! I'm sorry I forgot to mention that Stevie here is mute," she said kindly, lowing her voice a little.
"Mute? Like a mutation?" One boy shouted out across the class. As I looked over at him I noticed all the slightly worried looks must of the students were sharing. I heard weird remarks like 'does that mean she's a werewolf?' or 'so shes a cross between two animals?' or even 'she was developed in a science lab in Oxford?' I bit my lip. This wasn't a good start. Everbody thought I was some weird creature probed by scientists!
"No, it just means she can't talk," a boy spoke up from the desk in the front corner of the room. He sent me a weak smile, "her vocal cords probably didn't develope right when she was a baby," he carried on, looking at me for confirmation. I nodded my head slowly.
The boy wore big black rimmed glass on his face and was wearing a plaid shit buttoned right up to the top. His hair was big and bushy, a little out of control and was long enough that it covered his face right up to his glasses. His voice was soft and it sent a little tingle up my spine.
I noticed a couple of people ripping out pages in their books and scrunching them up into balls. I was just starting to wonder what they were going to do with them when somebody chucked one straight at the boys head. He brushed it off, but turned away from me and buried his head back into his book. A few more people threw paper balls at him and others spat some unkind things at him such as: 'shut up weed' 'know-it-all' 'oh look mr smarty pants is correcting us again!' and the one that I disliked the most 'I wish he was a retard like her so we didn't have to hear him talk either!'
They all reminded me of my old school days...
I looked over at where Mr Dempsey was standing a couple meters away, confused as to why he hadn't said anything to stop them. But he was in a deep discussion with Karen, not hearing the class or paying them any attention.
Soon the jibes settled down and the room went rather quite, people whispering to each other instead of talking aloud. I felt a bit awkward, just standing at the front, but there was nothing I could do. I could hardly start a conversation with someone! I bet not even one person in this room could even understand sign language!
"Liam!" Mr Dempsey called out, beckoning for the boy in the corner to come over.
Liam... so that was his name...
"Yes sir?" Liam asked walking over to us quickly.
"Right, well Stevie here needs a mentor to show her around and me and Karen have just compaired your timetables and you two have most of your lessons together. We were thinking maybe you, Liam, could show Stevie around?" He looked at Liam hopefully and I bit my lip, nervous to hear his response.
