Ross's POV
I sat on my bed and looked at Renee, she was reading. I looked over at her ukulele on my desk. I went into Rydel's room and borrowed her dry erase board and some makers, then I got a flashlight. I wrote, "My window is stuck." Then shined the flashlight on her book, she looked up and smiled. She opened her window and said, "Hi." I showed her the white board, she nodded and dissapeard, then she came back with one of her own.
She wrote, "Whats up?" I wrote, "Are you okay?" Her smile dissapeard. She wrote, "Can I tell you something?" I nodded and she started writing something, then Riker walked in and sat down on my bed. I said, "Go away, she's about to tell me something." She looked up and saw Riker, then erased her board. I drew an arrow pointing to Riker and wrote his name under it. She wrote, "I'm Renee it's nice to meet you Riker."
Riker asked me, "Why don't you just open the window?" I said, "I think there's something going on, I need to find out." He said, "She's cute." I said, "Out." He laughed, "Fine but if things don't work out, let me know. She looks like a keeper." I shoved him off my bed. Renee started laughing. Riker got up and left the room.
I wrote, "What were you gonna tell me?" She wrote, "It's nothing." I wrote my number on my board, she smiled and put it in her phone. Then, she wrote hers. We started talking like this everyday. After school. I saw Renee learning sign language one day on her laptop. So I started learning it too. I knew what was going on now.
Ross's POV
Four months later, I finally invited Renee to a local R5 concert. We've been hanging out a lot lately, but she still won't admit she's deaf. It's not like I can just blurt out, "I know you're deaf." I've been dying to tell her, but I don't know how. I've spent so much time with her since we moved here. My window is still "stuck". And every time I go over to her place to hang out in her room, I notice the layer of dust getting thicker every time.
Her ukulele is now sitting in my closet on the top shelf. She comes over a lot to either hang out or study. I didn't want her to see it. I notice little things about Renee that I don't think she knows she's making a pattern. When she goes places she wears her headphones so if people talk to her she can just keep going as if she didn't hear them, which she can't. But she always talks to me, and I make sure to look directly at her so she can read my lips. Sometimes, I just mouth the words, because I know it's easier for her.
The concert was tonight but I asked her if she wanted to go early with me because I wanted to show her something. But the time I have her was even earlier than the rehearsal time. We had been there earlier than rehearsal. She met me outside of the amphitheater. We went inside and we went to the stage, she turned around in awe. I stood behind her, "I know you can't hear me, which is good, because I've been wanting to tell you for months. I know you're deaf." I just needed to say it.
She turned around, "So why did you want me to come earlier?" I took her hand and led her over to Ratliff's drum set. I had her sit down in front of the kick drum. I put both of her hands on it. Then I sat down and pushed the foot pedal, she smiled as she felt the beat. Then I playfully picked her up and put her down by one of our biggest speakers. I picked up Riker's bass and turned it up all the way. I put in some earplugs and started playing. The smile on her face was glowing.
She ran over to me and hugged me. She said, "Thank you." I said, "You're welcome." She asked, "How did you know?" I used sign language, I signed, "Because I care." She said, "I can't even tell my mom, I've been doing piano competitions for fifteen years. How am I supposed to tell her that, it's all over?" I said, "You know, there's operations where they can reconstruct your ear drums, you'd be able to hear again." She said, "Really?" I nodded, "Yeah, but it's expensive." She instantly said, "I can do it." I said, "You can?" She nodded, "I will do anything to get my ears back."
A few minutes later I went out to pick up some lunch, I left Renee in the theatre. When I came back she was playing the keyboard, the music wasn't that loud though. She was really good. I waved, she got up. She jumped off the stage and we sat in a random row of seats far back. I said, "Why didn't you have the volume loud? Didn't you want to feel it?" She nodded, "Yeah, but I didn't know when the rest of the crew and your family would get back, and I didn't want to damage the speakers."
I said, "So, what's it like?" She said, "Do you know how bad it is to think? It sucks. I don't know what I'm saying in my head and what's out loud." I said, "That must be hard." She said, "Yeah. I don't understand why you're doing this." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "You're making it easy for me, but you have to use more effort just to talk to me. I mean, the dry erase boards, you look directly at me when you say things, and the sign language." I said, "Because I want you to know you have a friend, someone to take the stress away. I see you at school trying to keep up a conversation with your friends. They never look at you when they talk to you, I see you struggle." She looked away and looked back, "You're just, so, nice." I laughed, then I got serious, "Renee, if you need help paying for that operation if you're considering-" she cut me off, "No, I can do it." I said, "Are you sure?" She said, "Yeah." Then the crew, my parents, the rest of R5 and Kelly walked in. Riker let out a loud, "Whooo!" And listened for the echo.
