Years of Silence

CHAPTER ONE

Bastien and I stepped off the old misshapen sidewalk onto the grass as I finally turned to what I'd been dreading for weeks now. My first day back to high school. I was almost sixteen. But, luckily for Bastien, his best friend Gavin stepped up to the curb at the same time as we did, high-fiving Bastien and signing faster than anyone else I know. Everyone started using sign language after the silence started. Bastien shot me a glance, silently apologizing for Gavin dragging him off, just as my best friend, Callia, jumped up beside me, her blonde hair flying in the wind. She grabbed my arm and started signing nearly incoherently about how excited she was to see me and how much she'd dreamed about seeing Bastien again.

There's a very good explanation for that, I promise. Cal has had a crush on Bastien ever since I introduced them way back in fifth grade. She used to think his voice was cute too, but that's kind of a bust now that she can't hear it. Although I'm weirded out that she likes my twin, I was never really surprised. Even though everyone calls us identical, I've always considered him the attractive one out of the two of us. Because we have the same red hair and dark skin, people at least see us as siblings, but no longer as identical. Bastien is more fit than me, and he's about a half a foot taller. I have sharper cheekbones, but he always wears green, which brings out his eyes, so girls are always watching him. When my eyes turned purple before the ringing, I realized no one else had this predicament.

Cal continued to drag me into the school, signing about how nervous she was for her advanced class, and how upset she was that we weren't in the same class. But suddenly, she changed the subject. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, there's word around that there's a new boy, and he's cute!" She signed. Now she was signing slow enough I could understand. Of course. The bell rang to go to class, and suddenly we were in front of my door. The bells ringing in our school were also changed since the silence. Since people have to rely on their other senses to live, our bells are bright flashing lights on every wall of the school. They seem to change the colour of the entire hallway, almost making you feel faint. But not quite.

I walked down to the end of the hallway, where I had my first class, history. We stood in front of it awkwardly, and Cal glanced into the room, turned out instantly, and smiled at me. "He's in there." She signed. "Maybe this is your chance to change something. Talk to him." She shoved me into the room, and closed the door behind me. I glanced up, only to find a Hazmat standing at the front of the room, and all the students standing against the wall on the other end. The tardy bell rang, and the teacher wrote on the board, "Please take your seats." There was a nametag on each of our seats, and we were told to sit wherever our names were. I was in the second row, with my friend Amy on one side of me, and a boy I didn't recognize on my other side. I felt a tap on my shoulder and then saw a notebook in front of the boy to my right. "Hey. I'm Xavier." He seemed nice enough, for now, maybe I could convince him I was cooler than Bastien, and maybe take Cal's advice. "I'm Klarissa." I wrote.

A light grin bloomed on his face as he moved his dark hair to the side on his forehead. When he did, I got a look at his eyes, which had been hidden under a sheet of shadow. To my surprise, they were the same shade of violet as mine. My eyebrows raised and Xavier seemed to notice it. He signed, "What?" I took out my marker and wrote on my paper, "What happened to your eyes?" He smiled. And pulled out his marker. After about thirty seconds, he showed me his paper. "Probably the same thing that happened to yours." His handwriting was wavy and dark, like he had something against the paper. He smiled and turned back to the front.

The Hazmat in the front turned to us and started signing. "As you know, this class is history. So that's what I'm here to teach you. This suit is not an updated, fully new suit. So no, they didn't give you a Hazmat as a teacher. I'm only a former Hazmat. The teacher took off the helmet, freeing tumble of black hair fell out. Suddenly, I was looking into the face of my aunt. She had the same wild black hair, and the same dark skin, and the same dimples when she smiled. She let the Hazmat suit drop to the floor, and she stepped out of it, wearing a stylish black dress, that looked like one any normal teacher would wear.

My mouth dropped wide open. The teacher, my aunt Cass, noticed my mouth hanging open, and she smiled. "Some of you may already know me, but in case you don't, you can call me Miss Jamison. I am, in fact, Klarissa's aunt." She pointed to me and I felt my cheeks get extremely red. "She believes her aunt was captured after the ringing. For those of you who had family and friends taken, you'll be happy to know that they're fine. They were just recruited...by the Hazmats. Although this conclusion may be a surprising one for you to reach, there was an edict ensuring that we had to tell people what happened to your families." She finished signing her message and turned to write her name on the board. She turned back. "Although I am a retired Hazmat, I hope you will all be willing to give me a chance, as I will be your teacher for this semester."

My mouth dropped open, as I had never expected my first day back would be so exciting. First I meet a guy with my eyes, then it turns out my aunt is an ex-hazmat, and she's my teacher for the first semester of my junior year. It's only been an hour!