Can You Hear Me? ~ Adopted by Fall Out Boy (COMPLETED)

Art of Keeping Up Disappearances

I did end up getting pizza when we got home.

Ana also got to spend the night, her parents were surprisingly fine with it, and my parents wanted us to sleep on the couches in case we got any ideas. 

Currently, Ana was laying across my lap as we ate pizza. Declan sat on the floor with us, eyes on the movie, and Mom and Dad were on the couch with their pizza. They already put Antero to bed, and we were all starting to get tired as well.

It was hard to believe that it had only been five days since they adopted me. So far I had been to a concert, got a girlfriend, got hearing aids and went to the mall multiple times. I was excited as to how the rest of my life as Eve Stump would be. 

The next six days were entirely uneventful. But now it was Christmas Eve, and the entire Stump(h) Clan was staying in town. A lot of them were in a hotel, but most of them were at our house. Specifically, Dad's Mom, Step-Dad, and older sister's family. It was a crowded house. I was currently stuck on the couch with Declan and various cousins. They would all be here until Christmas Evening. So, needless to say, I spent a lot of time out of the house. I didn't mind having a ton of family over, it was just that they were all energetic. I usually had my hearing aids in, but I wasn't quite used to hearing things yet so I got panicked easily from all of them. 

Today was spent in the huge fig tree in our back yard. I found out the other day that there is a spot high in the branches that no one could see me. I laid against the branches, sitting on the cushion I brought out yesterday, journal in hand.

Grandma Patricia bought me a bullet journal and a ton of markers, so I had started to bullet journal. I was planning out my new year with various weekly, monthly, yearly and tracker spreads. Was I going too far? Possibly. Did I care? No. 

My only New Year's Resolution was to get better with talking. I still had no clue what tones everyone used, and the only one I knew was actually bad was yelling. There had already been a ton between Grandma Patricia (Nana) and Grandpa David (Grandpa). That's why Grandpa David was staying in a hotel with Uncle Kevin and his family. But everyone was here right now. The kids were all screaming, and the adults were yelling. So much for a happy Christmas...

I texted Ana: Babe, I need some memes. STAT.

Ana was quick to oblige, sending me quite a few with my dad.

Me: Why do you have so many of my dad's memes?

Ana: I'm still a huge FOB fan babe (laughing emoji)

She continued to send me more as my heart began to grow heavy. There was something... off... about how I felt. I knew I was okay, but it felt like I wasn't sitting in the tree while it began to snow. It felt like I was watching a movie of my own life.

What is going on? I didn't want to tune back in. I couldn't hear anything, so my hearing aids must have died. My eyes were focused on one point, some dot in my journal. My thoughts began to drift.

What am I even doing here?

And then they stopped completely. Despite the snow piling up on the ground, I didn't feel cold. Part of me was scared. And yet, I didn't freak out. The other part was utterly calm. It felt weird, but normal at the same time. 

I didn't realize how much time had passed until Dad came out in a full winter outfit, trudging through a foot of snow.

"Eve? Eve, what are you doing up there?" He asked, looking at me worriedly. 

I shrugged, throwing my journal and markers into my bag and jumping down. It was when my bare feet hit the snow that I began to realize how cold I was. My body was shaking.

"C' mon honey, let's get you inside. Your mom has been worried all afternoon," Dad picked me up and carried me inside (with some difficulty, of course). I looked at my phone's time to see that I had been out there for three hours. How was I not dead yet?

We got inside and the noise immediately stopped. My family saw my shaking body and immediately started running around, making noise and making my heart pound. Dad set me on the couch and I immediately took my hearing aids out. Dad cocked his head to the side, taking the aids as I passed them to him.

"Too much noise, I'm freaking out a little," I signed, hands shaking so violently that it almost translated to "I'm driving a little." That, obviously, would have been wrong.

"Guys, back up, she-" Dad turned away, but immediately my family backed off. No longer did I have 5 children peering at me, tapping anywhere they could touch. No longer did I have grandparents who were holding my hands through 5 blankets. No longer did I have an aunt who was complaining to someone (most likely her boyfriend) on the phone. They all just... left. It was a much-needed relief. I curled further into the blankets and shut my eyes, actually getting some rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up later to Mom checking my temperature. When she saw I was up she smiled, passing my aids to me. 

Mom was trying to learn ASL in order to communicate with me, but since she had to watch Declan and Antero she couldn't learn as fast as Dad did. So we stuck to hearing aids and her signing words she knew while she talked.

"You've got a little bit of a fever, but that's okay. It shouldn't be too bad tomorrow. We're about to start eating if you want to join us," Mom's smile reached her eyes as she smoothed my hair away from my forehead. I nodded, and she helped me stand up. As soon as the blankets were off, I started to shiver again. Mom passed me a hoodie from the back of the couch, one I recognized as Dad's, and I pulled it over my head and shuffled to the table.