I Want to Say Hello

Chapter 1

 Laney entered her first year of high school with a literal bang. She ran in the doors without paying any attention to her surroundings and landed face first on the floor. She had always been rather clumsy but that had never been her life's biggest problem. People usually focused on the fact she had selective mutism. She would only talk around her close family members, more so around her parents and sister than near her brother or other relatives. She would also speak with her best friend who was named Jamie. Jamie had been born two weeks before Laney to the house next door. Laney's parents had been friends with Jamie's and ended up getting pregnant around the same time. Nine months later and two baby girls see each other for the first time and become instant friends.

Laney often referred to Jamie as her sister out of habit. It was understandable as Jamie had been with her for her entire life and the two would spend a decent time at each other's houses. Jamie never went to school like Laney did, Jamie was homeschooled. Jamie would ask Laney about school but Laney never said a word about it, even to her parents. They'd ask her if she had friends, she would just shake her head and say the other kids have friends, but she didn't. Her parents never really looked into this as they thought Jamie was just fine.

Focusing in class hadn't been hard for Laney, and she understood things quickly, but a teacher had called home one day and asked why Laney wouldn't participate. Laney's parents were very shocked to find out that she had not been answering problems with words. She would mouth responses over to teachers in hopes that they'd understand what she was trying to say, but they usually thought she just didn't understand the problem and wanted attention. Laney was taken to a therapist and was diagnosed with selective mutism. She dealt with that just fine up until now and was not looking to improve her condition in any way.

Laney had never been very fond of change, she had the same long brown hair her entire life and was not looking to get rid of it any time soon, she never wore makeup, she usually wore outfits similar to each other, and disliked changing schools for high school. She most definitely wasn't going to work to get rid of some illness that wasn't hurting her in any way. Though the teachers in high school seemed to to take her illness less seriously than previous teachers.The teachers wouldn't pay attention to her worried glances in class when they'd mention presentations. They'd shrug it off as her being shy and nothing else. Generally she would find herself becoming annoyed due to the fact that they would ignore her concerns, but her real issue was that they said if she wouldn't make an effort to fix her disease, she would not receive any special treatment.

She would sit stubbornly in class, not even making an attempt to mouth words to the teachers when they'd call on her, she would sit and stare at the board blankly. The teachers told her parents she was going through a rebellious phase but they refused to believe this conclusion, they explained her disease but the teachers refused to pay attention to their concerns regarding her illness. Daily, Laney would come home and tell Jamie about how unfair the teachers were being to her, but Jamie was losing her patience with the stories, she just wanted to explore. Jamie always spent her time exploring various alley ways and fields that she and Laney had not been allowed to go to until this year as they were in high school. The new independence was nice, but Laney found Jamie's attempts boring. Jamie would make new friends on her adventures and all Laney wanted to do was talk. It was shocking, but Laney quite enjoyed talking with Jamie. It gave her a venting space for everything that she had kept locked up inside her for so long. She didn't have anyone at school to talk to so it seemed to explode on Jamie when she returned home from school each day. Jamie loved listening but she loved her adventures more. Her adventures ended up getting her into trouble a few times, but Laney always tried to straighten her out before that happened. Jamie wasn't trying to be "rebellious", it just happened with her personality. Jamie dyed her hair a bright pink color, got piercings, and started coming home very late from her adventures. She had countless boyfriends, some even at the same time, and she would often party. Laney promised her parents that she wasn't the same way, though they continued to ask her about it. She would often explain that it's almost impossible to for her to be the same as she doesn't even talk. Her parents often told her she needed to "stop her act," as if her disease was some sort of fun show she put on. These were the days Laney would hate her disease. It wasn't her fault, she shouldn't be blamed for this.