Silent

Chapter 4

Special thanks to Huffle_Puff_Grl who gave me a mini-heart attack when I realized someone had actually read my book. Thank you for the nice comment!

"You're an embarrassment." My father spat in a disgusted sharp tone, Gordon stops dead in his track. I could, surprisingly, hear clearly what my father had said and I was stunned. I knew my father was mad but I didn't think he would say something like that and my mother was just standing there watching!

They were always hinting that he wasn't living up to their expectations throughout all the years he was in school. He didn't get the best grades, even though he tried his very best all the time, they didn't understand why and thought it was his fault and that he was just lazy and careless.

This thought suddenly makes me remember when he was still in military school, he found out he was dyslexic and wrote to me about it saying he didn't want to tell them because he thought it would just seem like an excuse and he made me promise not to tell anyone either. I can't stand watching but I can't go down there and do something either they'd know I was listening and it's none of my business.

My attention quickly returns to Gordon who is undoubtedly so furious right now, he slowly turns to my parents; I am so annoyed at them right now that I am actually hoping that Gordon unleashes whatever he's been holding back all these years. He looks like he's about to say something but immediately turns back and walks away.

I am a little disappointed at first but I suddenly remember that it's my graduation day and my family is waiting downstairs for me. I take one last glance at the mirror, admiring my curled, loosely pinned back hair and beautiful dress one last time before rushing down to the main entrance.

Standing behind the door I take a minute to tighten the pins in my hair, and breathe for a moment, a guard then scans my tags and opens the doors for me. I can't help but have a huge smile on my face I was so mad at my father just a minute ago but I'm just too excited to stay that way for long.

The main room is packed, families are talking and laughing, it makes the school seem more alive than ever, there are even quite a few reporters here snapping pictures and asking questions, of course, exceptionally controlled by the many security guards.

It takes a while but I finally identify my family on the other side of the room. I nervously navigate my way through all the noisy people I'm not used to all of this chaos going on so close to me, I usually avoid things like this when I can although I very rarely have to, being at school 24/7 where nothing new happens, ever.

The first one to see me is Mirabelle, who immediately nudges Cilla, who looks up and smiles brightly chiming in a high pitched voice "Desi!" everyone else then also looks up at me, all I can think to do is smile and wave although I've been doing this all day it gets old, looking over all the faces I notice Gordon is again missing from the crowd I quickly look around spotting him, apparently hiding in the corner. Before I even know what's happening Cilla is dragging me over to everyone and the challenge begins.

For about 20 minutes we've been talking, well they've mostly been asking questions, and it had been hard trying to communicate with so many people at once at first but I got used to it, I hadn't noticed until my father asked me something about my GPA and I was reluctant to answer, that I had kind of been unconsciously avoiding him the whole time.

I finally learned the name of the baby, Luna, Tristen seemed surprised that no one told me, she even got mad at Declan for a moment, I like her, I think I like Muriel but I don't know she acts a little weird around me like I can't hear either, she seems nice enough though and she's not the only one who has done that before.

My nieces both tried showing me how much sign language they knew, but I got a little carried away and must have confused them, they were so cute, at some point I couldn't contain the urge and just wrapped my arms around them and gave them both a huge hug, they were caught off guard but other than that didn't seem to mind.

Now I am really anxious to talk to Gordon, I know he's probably still really mad and having the 20 minutes to himself was a good thing, but I can't wait any longer, I know he wouldn't mind that I was listening not much happened but I don't want to get him mad again so I'll wait a little while before saying anything about it.

As I get closer I can see how mad he really is, he's just staring off into space and it's not hard to see that a million things must be buzzing through his brain right about now. He looks up at me and immediately smiles, I again smile and wave then give him a hug he immediately starts talking.

"You made it through! As soon as the ceremony is over you won't ever have to come back here... EVER!" He says looking just, if not more excited than I am. I nod and clap my hands enthusiastically. "Doesn't it feel so strange to think tomorrow you can choose what to eat and to do and to wear?" he says this and I remember that I'm not wearing the normal uniform right now. *This is different.* I sign and twirl once.

"It's cute, I think, I don't have the best taste, do you like it?" he asks all at once almost like he's all of a sudden worried about saying something wrong and for some reason It just makes me laugh. At first he looks confused but then seems to evaluate what he just said and joins in. *This in an upgrade, I remember you always used to have quite a few things to say about my appearance before, are you okay?* "yeah, sorry, your just the only one left." He says out of nowhere and looks really unhappy for a moment but soon snaps out of it.

After talking a while it's just like it's always been, he makes fun of me a little and jokes around, we are best friends, although neither of us would admit it. We are also the only friend either of us ever had, but as he tells me about his job he says he's starting to make new ones, and I'm so happy for him.

Halfway through our conversation I decide not to talk to him about what happened, he seemed too happy and I didn't want to make him angry again. I eventually did have to leave; everyone was waiting for me in the concert hall to rehearse the ceremony.