Can you hear me?

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

The bus was loud as usual as it took a long way home, to take her back to her house.

The bus got even more crowded as people from different stops came boarding.

The talks intensified. Then went an octave up. And then, shattered.

It was too much noise to the girl who had just had a horrible day. So, she plucked out her white earbuds out of her black purse that was on her lap and put her go-to, sad pop - music on. And as the bus rounded a corner, the girl tilted in her seat and nearly plummeted to a guy standing in front of her. He had earbuds in as well and held onto the handle above her head. While the other hand, held his phone, finger scrolling. Since the boy didn't notice that, she slid back into the blue, slick, seat and leaned. She closed her eyes as light streamed in through the plastic windows of the bus.

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The girl got home, to find her family surrounded by the family computer. She wondered what was up but the question was answered as soon as she thought that.

"Becca! You're back!" Her brothers rejoiced as they floated towards her, squeezing her at her waist.

Her mom motions her hand at her brothers to come back as Becca walks over to where the rest of her family were.

"We were just about to call your grandma", her mom mentioned. Grandma, meaning, mom's side.

"Oh," she replied. And then Skype rings. They all looked at each other, excited. And she knew why, they all had smug faces on except her - her smug smile was fake - because whenever they talked to this grandma, she easily misunderstood what they had said through the call and she often ended up talking to herself as well.

The call stopped ringing and her grandmother's squeaky voice answered,

"Yes?" she said in Japanese.

"It's Karen Winston from New York," her mom replied. She always says who and where the caller is since Skype, comes up as an unknown caller to the receiver.

"Oh. Ohh, yes-"

Her mom interrupts her mom, "Yes-".

Her dad says to say, "How are you?"

"How are you, mom?" Her mom repeats. Her mom and Becca's grandma were not on good terms. She snorted when her mom looked flustered at the way her grandma replied. Then, my dad motions for us to all go speak with her - to line up - one by one. And dad tells us, each, what to say. And so, they were all smiling except for Becca who wore a fake smile that passed.

The call ended and a second later, her family all burst into waves of laughter.

"Oh, is that so?" Her elder sister, Jess, mimicked in a squeaky voice as soon as the call ended. Everyone followed, laughing at that.

Bella turned her eyes to her parents, where they were whispering to each other and laughing on the call that had just happened. Becca just shook her head at them - her parents, thankfully, didn't notice - as she walked to her room.

Why? Why were they so mean to their own grandma - who, in fact, they were indebted to? After all the goods that their grandma had sent from the far East, when she didn't have to - how could they laugh? And if they were laughing at how their own grandma misheard things, then that was just rude! First of all, she was old, so no figure, and so her hearing quality probably was deteriorated, but that does not mean they could laugh. Like, that was just so -

Becca got so fed up that when she was called to do the dishes, she wanted to yell at her mom, who was smiling at her husband, innocently.

With no way to express her anger, she literally splashed a ton of dish soap on the dirty dishes and started rubbing, arbitrarily. How? How could they be so rude? But one thing elucidated in front of her, they did not respect people. And Godsdamn, they did not.

But she could not do anything about it, and it wasn't like she could just go and yell in her parents' and siblings' faces out of nowhere. In fact, she did not want to say it, because she needed this anger to rile her up, to make her feel sad that no one understood except her. And so, she kept this in her heart and tucked it away.