Quiet vs. Loud

Diving and Dates (part 2)

Rayne's POV

This morning, when I woke up, the first thing I thought of was my upcoming date with Riker.  I had no idea what he would plan, but I knew that it would be amazing.  But even if it was just a quiet night with just the two of us watching movies and eating pizza, I would love it because I would be spending time with him.  I got out of bed and went to take a shower and get ready for the day.  My family had a meeting with Jayce's counselor.  Evidently, my dad was becoming more upset that Jayce won't talk, and he is blaming my mom and Evan, even though he wasn't talking long before Mom started seeing Evan.  I mean, they have only been together 4 years, and Jayce hasn't talked since he was around 2 years old.  I guess my dad is just a jerk.  He is trying to get say that Jayce and Whit should come live with him, and that Jayce would talk if they were away from Jackson, which is really upsetting since Jackson is his son as well.  But he never really could accept that there was, in his eyes, something wrong with Jackson.  In fact, he never even learned sign language in order to communicate with Jackson.

After my shower, I got dressed and went downstairs, where everyone was already in the kitchen eating breakfast.  "Good morning" I said/signed.  "What time do we need to leave for the meeting?" I asked as I fixed my cereal.  "We have to be there at 9 o'clock, so we need to leave in about an hour.  I want to miss all the traffic." Mom said as she put her coffee cup in the sink.  "Whit, I want you and Jayce to feed the dogs and let them our since you two are done eating." Mom told my brothers.  "I'm going to go finish getting ready Rayne.  Will you make sure that the dishes are in the dishwasher when you are done eating?"  I nodded my head at her as I fixed a glass of juice to go with my cereal.

Jackson was sitting at the table, so I took my food and went to sit with him.  I knew he hated going to these meetings.  He felt like it was his fault that Jayce won't talk, even though we have all told him it's not, so it's really hard to sit in a room and know that your own father is blaming you for something that you have no control over.  As I sat down, Jackson looked up at me and gave me a half smile.  I just crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue, which made him smile.  I signed "Dont' worry, everything will be ok.  This is the last meeting we have to have.  The counselor knows that Jayce refused to talk when he and Whit stayed with Dad last month, and even Whit barely spoke.  So it can't be better for them to be there.  Everything will get worked out today, and we can forget about Dad."  Jackson just shrugged and we both finished our cereal.  When we were done, I loaded the dishwasher and started it while Jackson took out the trash.  By the time we were done, Jayce and Whit were back in from feedingh the dogs and Mom and Evan were ready, so we all walked out and got in the car.  As I was walking to the car, I saw Riker in his yard, so I just waved at him and blew him a kiss.  He blew me one in return and yelled for me to come over with my brothers whenever we got home.  I nodded and got in the car.After the meeting, we all headed home.  The meeting had gone very well.  Whit explained how things had been when he and Jayce stayed with our dad.  He said that Dad refused to use sign language with Jayce, and he also refused to have sign language used around him.  According to him, if Jayce wanted something, he needed to ask for it or get it himself.  So that is what both boys did.  They did everything they wanted, and if Dad spoke to Jayce or asked him a question, they both ignored him.  The doctor asked our Dad why he was like that, and he said that he knew Jayce could talk, and therefore he saw no reason why he shouldn't talk.  He also said a bunch of other stuff that made me really mad.  In the end however, the doctor and counselor decided that no harm was being done to Jayce by him not talking, but what our dad was doing was harming him, Jayce no longer had to be around our Dad.  As soon as that was announced, my Dad got up and stated that since he was evidently "harming" his son, he wanted to sign away all parental rights, not just to Jayce, but to me, Jackson and Whit as well.  He had even had his attorney draw up the papers before the meeting, so he went ahead and signed them that day and gave them to our Mom's attorney to turn in at the courthouse.  Neither me nor any of my brothers were upset that he did that.  None of us had gotten along with him in a long time.  In fact, we all considered Evan our Dad, and we knew that the one thing he wanted to do when he married our mom was adopt us, but he had to wait for our Dad to sign over his rights.