Listen With Your Heart [May Continue in Future]

CH 16

Thomas's POV

Our birthday was coming in a couple of days, my brothers and I couldn't be more excited. Uncle Zayn and Uncle Liam, and their kids Connor and Mary were arriving tonight and all of us were so excited. Plus it'll be one of the only nights that Zander doesn't come over so I might be able to talk to my brother again.

Oliver was dating this deaf guy, Zander, for about a week, he was really cute and I was really happy for him...I was. He came over after school a couple of times and everyone really liked him; I kind of missed my brother though since he spent a lot of his free time with Zander now. Zander actually started giving us rides to school in his mom's car, which was nice. Our parents really like Zander too, the couple of times he stayed for dinner he helped cook and clean up. The school scene though was a lot more tense than at home.

We've been at school for a little under a month now but things were changing because of the new deaf students. Due to more budget cuts at the deaf school, the deaf student population at our school went from twelve-ish to over fifty.

Most of the hearing people at school knew Oliver and they knew him as friendly; if you made the time to talk to Oliver he'd gladly talk with you, writing notes back and forth, so many people assumed that the other deaf people would be the same way. It's not that the other deaf students were rude but they already had their friends and they really didn't want to put in the extra effort to talk to people that they didn't know; apparently some of hearing students asked out the deaf and were rejected as well.

Many of the hearings student saw them was rude and arrogant though since the deaf students weren't that interested in talking with any of them; it didn't help that the deaf where in their own classrooms since they all joined the deaf program that Oliver and Zander were in. Rumors said that their school work and homework in that program was far easier than the rest of us; it wasn't true but when Henry or I pointed it out, people just thought we were protecting our brother and wouldn't listen. The only time the hearing and deaf students mingled was in physical education classes since you didn't need to be able to hear to run in a circle or do push ups.

Other things started happening too. For some reason, the school decided to divide lunch into two groups; the deaf and freshman ate half an hour before everyone else, which meant that by the time everyone else was able to get food, the food was already cold. The school also cancelled the fall dance/homecoming dance and several other events because they weren't "inclusive enough" to the deaf students; the school was trying to figure out other events to host but in the time everyone was upset about the situation.

It was funny, Oliver was still accepted by the hearing students of the school since he was "one of us" but most of the hearing students, especially the upperclassmen, started getting hostile to the deaf since they were changing so much of the school.

As I walked with Henry to our lockers after being dropped off, I watched as a junior held open the door for a group of two deaf girls and a deaf guy who didn't appreciate the gesture. "Why are you holding the door for me? Is it because I'm deaf? I can take care of myself thank you very much. You didn't hold the door open for that other guy back there but you're holding it for us?" one of the deaf girls signed angrily, the guy of course, didn't understand a single word.

Henry, playing peace maker, jogged over. "He didn't mean it, he was just being polite" Henry said with his fingers. "We didn't ask him too" the deaf guy said "Tell this 'hearie' that if we need help, we'll ask for it. Just because we're deaf doesn't mean we're incapable!" he said before all of three went inside the door. "What the hell just happened? I tried to be nice and I get yelled at for it?" the junior said. "They thought you were taking pity on them..." Henry said. The junior scoffed "Your brother is the only cool one, these people need to get the hell out of our school" he said before he entered the building also. Henry looked and me and shrugged before we continued walking toward our lockers.

At my locker I was approached by some of the football team "Tom you do that hand-waving, finger-flicking thing right? Because of your brother?" I looked at them "Sign Language? Yeah?" He smiled and said "Can you teach us some signs then?" "Like what?" I asked. "Just the basic, you know: bitch, whore, slut, dick, ass, prick...just some words to help bridge the communication gap." "I don't know man, things are already tense around here, I don't think that's a good idea" I replied. The football player thought about it for a moment "Tom...I'll get Pam's number for you if you teach us." "...Alright so the sign for bitch is the B handshape on your chin, with your thumb close to your chin, your index finger should be pressed against your chin, starting at the bottom lip" I started to explain and then showed them the sign.

-

I sat with Henry at lunch, discussing our birthday, trying my best to ignore Oliver and Zander as they tried their best to eat and swallow each other's faces. "I really hope that we have three separate cakes like last year and year before" Henry was saying. "You're not a fan of the three layered extra-large cake we used to get?" I asked. "Not really...well I mean... I like cheesecake, you like ice cream cake and Oliver likes regular cake, this way we all get what we want, even if we do all get smaller cakes." I turned to Oliver and elbowed him "Have your parents said anything to you about our birthday cakes?" I asked with my hands for Zander's benefit also, to not make him feel left out.

"No, and I don't care if I get cake or not since I got cake right here" Oliver said; Zander laughed loudly as Oliver's hand pinched his ass. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Henry as Oliver placed his lips on Zander's again. "Wouldn't it be nice to have a conversation with Oliver once a while, like we used to?" I said to Henry. "Relax Tom, this is Oliver's first real relationship; be happy for him" Henry said. "I just miss my brother" I said, looking over my shoulder to Oliver and Zander.