Mute Mallorie

Chapter One

"Oh, my gosh, Mallorie," my best friend, Wendy, said walking up to my locker, "You look so cute today!"

I signed, 'Thank you,' in ASL. ASL stood for American Sign Language.

She smiled, "You are very welcome," she spun in a circle, "How do I look?"

I smiled and put two thumbs up.

"Oh, thank you!"

Some kids laughed as they walked past.

"Put a sock in it!" Wendy yelled at their backs. She turned to me, "Kids are petty."

I nodded.

"Come on, let's get to class," she grabbed my arm.

'So,' I signed, 'How was your weekend?'

"Oh, it was absolutely wonderful," she replied, "Dad took us to a great restaurant. We should go again and you should come."

"Stop talking to yourself," A mean girl said. She was a couple years older than us.

"Shut up, Denise," Wendy said, unafraid.

"What'd you just say, ugly?"

I pulled on Wendy's arm.

"Look, it's the real reject trying to save the day," Denise said.

"Don't talk about Mallorie like that, she's human too."

"No, she's not."

"Yes, she is. She's a better human than you."

"At least I can talk," she gloated.

That made Wendy angry. She almost lunged at her when the principal showed up.

"Enough, enough," she said, "Go to class everyone."

"Everyone say goodbye to Weird Wendy and Mute Mallorie," Denise said with a smirk.

I hated when people called me that because I knew it was true.

I was mute and I couldn't do anything about it.

Wendy and I were sitting in class when a kid walked in.

He walked to the teacher's desk and they talked quietly for a little bit.

The teacher stood and the kid followed her to the front of the room.

"Class, we have a new student," she said, "This is Clark Henrie. Say hello to Clark."

The class said 'hello' and I just sat there.

"There's an open seat next to Mallorie," the class laughed, everyone knew why, "Mallorie, please, raise your hand."

I lifted my hand up a little and the kid saw. He sat next to me and looked at me.

"Hi," he said, quietly.

I nodded to him and looked away.

The teacher began to lecture.

"So," he whispered, quietly, "I'm Clark."

I pointed to my temple with four fingers. That meant 'I know' in ASL.

"What grade are you in?"

I didn't answer. I didn't think he would understand ASL. I wrote 'Eleventh' on a sheet of paper.

"Me, too," he whispered.

"Mr. Henrie," the teacher said, "Please, not on the first day."

"Just talking about what I missed so far, Mrs. Anderson."