Haley Locke |Locke and Key]

1.

Life for Haley Locke had always been hard.

Being born deaf had its downsides. Her father, Randall Locke had been the only one in the entire family to actually take the time to learn Haley's natural language. ASL.

The others, her siblings and her mother knew signs yes, but they would sometimes forget that Haley wouldn't hear them when they got tired of using their hands to talk. Haley had forced herself to learn how to read lips and still, sometimes she completely missed the meaning of what they were saying.

Her younger brother Bode did try to include her in conversations, helping her to understand lip reading, but he was young and his attention span couldn't be on his sister for long periods of time and Haley didn't like to bother him that much. She didn't mind. At least her little brother would 'talk' to her.

Kinsey and Tyler were different. They both knew sign language but they sometimes pushed Haley to read their lips, knowing their sister could do it. I mean, they saw her communicate with their father so easily, how hard would it be?

Nina, their mother God bless her soul, she had no idea how sign language worked. She'd say the wrong thing and she'd know it by the crease of her daughter's eyebrows before glancing at her father to actually interpret what she was talking about.

But at least she tried.

And Haley could only feel appreciation for her family for doing so. But then things changed.

Her father was murdered and with him, her chances to be heard.

To be understood.

~8~

Adjusting to a new life without her father was hard for Haley. No one else was be able to communicate the way he did, nor interpret what her siblings and her mother spoke about. Her silent world suddenly turned lonely.

Neither of her siblings would communicate properly with her, she wouldn't understand them anyway. So she mimicked them in what they did.

She shut them out. She avoided looking at their lips while they spoke and would use the universal gesture of 'I'm sorry. Can't hear you' so they would leave her alone. It worked, after all why bother trying to fit in a world that wasn't made for her?

A tap on her shoulder snapped her from her thoughts and away from the landscape out of the car, turning her head to see her younger brother Bode sitting next to her in the car.

Her mother no longer wanted to live in Seattle, the city Randall Locke was killed and wanted a fresh start. Haley did not argue with that.

What was the point? They wouldn't understand what she was complaining about anyway.

Haley made a questioning sound. That she was deaf didn't mean she couldn't speak. Oh, speak she could. But her voice was awful (some girl at her last school told her about it, and her attempts of trying to have a normal conversation were destroyed). Several years of speech therapy weren't for nothing.

Bode handed a Polaroid photo to his sister, showing her the last photo he took from their mom who was driving. He had written on the photo 'Bye bye Seattle'

Haley took the photo and eyed it with a slight smile, seeing by the corner of her eyes Bode was trying to sign something but she had trouble understanding him. She grabbed his hand apologetically, shaking her head.

Bode dropped his shoulders as if disappointed. He wanted to talk to her her way as he knew Haley hated lip reading.

Before Haley could sign to him that she wasn't bothered by reading his lips, the boy had already turned away to the rest of his Polaroid photos. She refrained from tapping his shoulder and ask what he had wanted to say, instead dropping her hand to her lap, turning back to watch the road.