catboy

Chapter Six

The picture is Theodosia bc she's the only one of them without an faceclaim. Also I know she's white and Lin had a non-white cast but I'll explain why I picked her at the end.

Update: I've been chipping away for days, but I'll publish it tonight. Welcome Emetheone and reallyawkwardbean and romancesucker201 and thank you for blowing up my notifs
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I'm not sleep deprived what?

the part where we eat lunch

Alexander's POV

The first half of the day at the new school seemed okay, if dull. I wrote a lot during class. It's amazing, the teachers think you're taking notes. Idiots. I was writing poems.

Curls

Everyone here has curls
Why does everyone have curls?
All the boys and all the girls
Seeing straight hair calms me

Pretty girl, dressed in blue
Straight hair down her mid back
This angel I would talk to
If I did not fear a heart attack

This boy that's supposed to show me around
His name is Aaron
He's quiet, which I count a blessing
If I ever could get one

And I pray for the day to be over
Though God will never answer
He was silent as the hurricane
Swept the island like a dancer

So I stop praying and look around
At all these boys and girls
I would call them men and women
But all these goddamn curls.

I looked down, satisfied with my work, when I heard someone call my name.

"Sorry, Alexander. The teacher held us late." Aaron panted, after running to meet me.

"It's fine." I whispered. I don't think he heard me in the overly loud cafeteria, but he continued talking to me.

"Well, um, my friends aren't very popular, or very interesting to most people, so if you wanna sit somewhere else I understand." Aaron said, sounding slightly disappointed.

No! He was the only person I had a not negative interaction with today! I was not going to lose him this easily!

"No, it's fine. I don't really have anyone else to sit with. Besides, popularity doesn't count for anything in the real world. Most of the cheerleaders and football jocks find themselves living in trailer parks anyways, right?" I rambled. I should have just said the first sentence. But he nodded.

"So, where are your friends?" Aaron smiled.

"That's my favorite part. C'mon." I followed him out of the cafeteria, and to a door leading outside.

"The sign says 'no students'." I said.

"Yeah, but we were given permission to be out here. Mr. Peters, the principal, he's cool. One of my friends is actually deaf." Aaron said. My eyes widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah. She can talk, sort of, and read lips, but it's hard for her with so many distractions. Also, her voice is really quiet and we can't actually really hear her in the cafeteria. So Mr. Peters lets us being pretty much anyone out here." Aaron opened the door, and the two of us walked outside.

There, sitting in the shade of a tree, were two girls.

One had dark skin and dark hair. Curls again. She wore a black long sleeved shirt that highlighted every curve, and some pale blue jean shorts with lace around the edges and small, white designs that I realised at a second glance were arrows. She had red nail polish, red lipstick, and heels in, you guessed it, red. I didn't realise it at first, but after a moment I realised that she had what looked like fox, or maybe wolf, ears.

She also had really big boobs. Which was probably disrespectful for me to notice, and worse for me to point out. Especially since I'm a guy. But it was true.

The other girl was pale, almost extremely so. She had freckles, and red hair that was so close to straight I had to count it as such. She wore this cute lime green dress that flowed out around her. It had a satin ribbon in the back, and lace-y three-quarter sleeves, along with some brown cowgirl boots. She was also extremely thin. Like a twig. A twig with boobs.

Also, why does Aaron not have any guy friends? Are they just not here? Is he gay? Is being gay a bad thing here? Am I gay? Am I real?

Woah. Back up a second.

"Hey ladies." Aaron said. Lipstick looked up.

"Hey Aaron!" she said. Twig looked up, and smiled. Why did she look up now? Oh, she must be the deaf one.

"Who's the new kid?" Twig asked. Her voice was soft, comfortingly so, in an accent I couldn't place. I almost started crying when she spoke. She sounded so much like my mother.

No. You are not going to cry all over three people you hardly know.

"This is Alexander. I'm showing him around." Aaron said. "Alexander, this is Maria," he gestured to Lipstick. "And this is Theodosia. The deaf one." he pointed at Twig. I like Twig better than Theodosia.

"Oh, the deaf one? Is that all I am to you now?" Theodosia said teasingly. I noticed when she talked, she moved her hands around her face and body, even more than I did. That must be sign language. I wonder if I could learn sign language. Then I'd be quadruple lingual.

"Can we call you Alex?" Maria asked. I opened my mouth to say no, and then thought about it. No one in the Caribbean had called me Alex. Maybe this could be an American thing.

"Yeah, I guess." I said, more enthusiastic about the nickname than I sounded.

"Fun! You can call me Theo, and you're probably gonna learn like a million different signs from me." Theo said, laughing slightly.

"Okay. How do you say 'thank you'?" I asked her. She stared me for a second.

"Sorry, it's gonna take some getting used to the way you talk. What do you want me to show you?" She asked. Oh yeah, she has to read my lips.

"Thank you," I said, a little slower, and clearer. She touched her lips to her mouth, and then flicked her hand out, like she was blowing a kiss.

"Well, thank you for letting me sit with you guys!" I said, using the new sign. Theo laughed.

"Well, we weren't just going to let you sit alone. I can only imagine what it feels like in your shoes. Coming to a new country, starting high school here. I'm not going to say I know how you're feeling, I don't. But if I were you, I wouldn't want to feel like an outcast." Aaron said, which I think is the longest thing I've ever heard him say.

Forget that.

That is single-handedly the best thing anyone has said to me in America.

I feel like I'm going to cry again when Maria says, "So to make you feel less like an outcast, we're gonna surround you with outcasts!" and the three of them start laughing and I can't help but join them.

We spend the next half hour sitting there. Eating very little, I notice, but talking about everything. We compare schedules, and I see that I have quite a few classes with the girls, including History, which we all have together. Theo talks about being deaf in a hearing school, and her interpreter, who's the biggest tool she's ever met. Theo and Aaron gang up on Maria and try to get her to break up with her mentally abusive boyfriend, who's name is James Reynolds. I team up with Theo and Aaron, and we only drop the subject when Maria says something about him helping her through her father's death. She apologizes for dropping that heavy topic on me on my first day, and I tell her it's fine, and apologize for her father's death.

Suddenly, Aaron looks at his watch, and shoots up.

"Guys, we have to go to History! If we're late again, Washington is going to kill us!" Aaron shouts. We all get up, and grab our bags, running towards the door.

I think I'm gonna like it here.

A/N: Okay, so I picked this faceclaim (Katie Leclerc) because she is actually deaf! So cool! Not that being deaf is cool, she's just on Switched at Birth.

longest chapter yet!
1395 words