The way of your movements( Fruk)

11

I should have known that his smiling at me was not the last time I would see him. It didn't stop; he didn't stop...However, it did not bother me as much as I thought. During the first day of the seminar, he would do activities in the rooms I would go to and show me from afar what he made. I tried not to look at him and would close my eyes if I noticed he was trying to come up to me. It grew harder not to let him talk to me.

If I needed something, he somehow already knew and would toss it at me and leave quickly. Why was he trying so hard? It doesn't make sense to me. I liked the attention, but I did not want to give in. He needs to know that his friends made me uncomfortable, and he made it worse by not doing anything about it.

When the days were over, he would text me and tell me how much fun he had and how he liked learning new phrases. I never answered him, of course, and he didn't get the hint.

The second session, out of the four, went nearly the same. However, more people began to show up and try to talk to him. I would watch other people try and sign at him, and he would get nervous and shake his hands. I would watch from a distance and would laugh at it.

"Hello, You are new here?" Someone signed him. Francis looked at their hands, confused, and started to throw random signs that did not make sense. Gang signs? " Yes, Francis is my name; I like the color...green," He signed. I am pretty sure his favorite color was not green; it was just what he remembered.

I began to laugh a little, watching him, and I smiled. He looked flustered, and the person still tried to talk to him. He looked toward me, and I flinched. My eyes widened as he looked at me, and I noticed a stupid smile spread across his face. I looked away from him quickly and began to do something else.

It was hard to ignore him when he was doing some annoying stuff. "Do you know him? He keeps staring at you," Someone approached me and asked. I turned around to where they pointed, and Francis turned away quickly to make it seem like he was not staring at me. "Yes, sadly," I signed. The person lifted an eyebrow at me and nodded, concerned.

Honestly, what an idiot.

Today was the third of the four sessions, and he kept trying to talk to me the whole time. He would wave and smile at me, and I tried not to show him any attention. "Alright, everyone, for this activity, we will need everyone to partner up," The main person signed and spoke. I could see her lips moving. "Your partner should be a learner or someone hard of hearing," they explained. "All interpreters stand to the side, please," They added.

Great...

"It's okay; try to find someone," Yao signed. I nodded at him nervously and felt an intense stare.

I looked around quickly to find a partner and saw someone starting to approach me. I waved at the person, and they came to me...then suddenly.

As he approached, Francis bumped him out of the way and signed for him to leave. I groaned at this and looked at him, annoyed. The guy looked at Francis, irritated, and shook his head as he left.

"What are you doing? I told you I don't want to see you," I spoke and signed. He looked at me eagerly and shook his head. "Please," He signed sadly. "I am sorry," He added. He started giving me puppy eyes, and I rolled my eyes. "You didn't defend me," I signed. He began to nod at me, and I tilted my head. "You did?" I asked, and signed. He nodded again, and I looked at him, annoyed. "When?" I asked.

He thought for a moment and slowly began to sign. "A-F-T-E-R," He started. Then pointed at me and signed "Left." Really? Why did he wait that long? "Seems like an excuse," I spoke and signed. He looked at me sadly and suddenly at the person on the stage.

"So we have prepared four games for everyone to do with their partner. It is a competition, so the last pair standing wins," The woman spoke and signed. Some translators began to direct the pairs to stand side by side and the partners in front of each other. "The learner will be the guesser for this first round of charades, and then vise versa, the learner will be given a button, and the fastest to get the answer wins," They started and signed.

They gave Francis a buzzer and gestured for the learners to sit down while the hard-of-hearing people were the person to begin the charades. Francis gave me a thumbs up, and people began to pass me something. It was a paper I would use to act out. God, this was going to be embarrassing. "This is an elimination game, so the first ten pairs will move on," They signed. I nodded at the explanation, and they allowed time for the hard-of-hearing/ deaf people to figure out what to do for a second.

I looked at the options and smiled at one I knew he would get.

I gave him a thumbs-up and a smile, and he smiled nervously. Everyone looked at the people to wait for a signal to start, and they started it.

I watched as everyone fumbled around to start the game, but I slowly bent down. I pointed at him, got into a frog position on the floor, and began to hop around. He looked at me, annoyed, and immediately pushed the buzzer. Within seconds everyone looked at us, shocked, and they came to see if he got it right.

"What is your answer?" They signed and asked.

Francis rolled his eyes at me and said something to them. "He says the answer is a frog; is that right?" They signed and asked me. I smiled at them, showing my card, and began to laugh at him. He looked at me, annoyed, and the interpreters announced that we were the first winners. We now had to wait for the following few people to win so we could move on.

Francis began to write on his small notepad and showed me with attitude.  "I hate you," It read, and I laughed. "No, you don't; you wouldn't be here if you did," I laughed. He smiled at me, nudging me, and once again, I felt that feeling deep inside of me. He was doing something to me, and I couldn't stop myself.

Each challenge not only caused us to learn to work together, but it was like we had become competitive with the other people. Francis and I internally agreed that we wanted to leave everyone in the dust. So we tried very hard to beat everyone.

We were all at the same disadvantage, so I didn't want anyone accusing us of cheating. It isn't like we are; strangely enough, we are only good at working together.

There was a game where I had to guide him through this "maze" as he had ear muffs on. The point was to give them an idea of what it would be like to be deaf and how to navigate with very few resources. He couldn't hear me, so I did my best to use my body language.

Thankfully he wasn't entirely an idiot, and he could understand what I was trying to say.

Another game we played was mainly for Francis, it was a game for telephone, and he had to see if he was the closest to getting the sentence. I was so proud to find out that he was the closest. He placed his hands on his hips proudly and smirked at me as he helped us move on to the final challenge.

Five pairs were left, including us, and we were determined to win.

"The last game is word jumble; you and your partner will have to solve the three words within fifteen minutes or less; first to finish wins," they signed and spoke. Francis' eyes widened, and he looked at me nervously. "What?" I asked.

He pointed to himself, then to the game, and shook his head. "I can't," he signed. He can't do it? "Are you bad at it?" I asked and signed. He nodded at me, looking sad. However, I wasn't going to give up. I placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling, and gave him a thumbs-up. "I am good at it," I spoke. His eyes widened, and he gave me the sweetest smile.

We got this!