Entering Her World

Chapter 1

*Violet POV*

I was awoke by the repeated bumping of my shoulder. A groan slipping out of my mouth as I sat up, my bleary eyes scanning around to find the thing that was behind my annoyance. Standing at my bedside was my twin brother, Linden. With swept inky black hair, dark grey eyes, and pale skin. The only things we had in common appearance wise was our hair and skin, my eyes were light grey with a hue of green, and we didn't look all that alike.

"Good morning," He signed with a stupid grin on his face.

He knew I hated mornings, so that's why he had such a smug look on his face. I tore the covers off me and swung my legs off the side of the bed, evidently kicking him in the shin. "Ow!" I'm pretty sure he yelped, as his mouth made that movement.

He jumped around on one leg, holding his now probably bruised one in the air with his arms wrapped around it. "Karma," I signed back, and it was my turn to smirk.

"Yeah, yeah," He rolled his eyes as he bobbed his fist, done with his little hop around, "Let's go. No breakfast for you, since you overslept."

My eyes widened and I turned to the clock, only to be met with the glowing red letters of 6:57. School started at 7:15. Poop. I rushed over to our closet - yes, we shared a closet, along with a bedroom - and quickly changed my clothes into the school uniform; A red plaid skirt, white button up shirt with matching knee high socks, a tie with the same pattern as the skirt, and a pair of black shoes. I moved over to my dresser and looked at my hearing aids, debating whether or not to put them on. Sure, they let me hear some ambient noise, but they were also the source of many pointed fingers and whispers about 'that weird kid'.

I looked over to see if Linden was wearing his and low and behold, he wasn't. Linden, unlike me, was not classified as deaf, he was more hard of hearing. He has told me that when people talk, it sounds like mumbly whispers, where he'd be able to make out parts of words but not full sentences. With his hearing aids, he could hear better, but it was still pretty muddy to him. Deciding against wearing them and just being extra careful about my surroundings, I nodded to Linden, signaling I was ready to go, and we both walked out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen.

Mom and Daisy were talking, but when we got there they both started signing while they spoke for us. No, not ASL - American Sign Language - because the syntax of ASL is different from spoken English, so our family usually used PSE - Pidgin Signed English - which is a combination of ASL and English. Though, me and Linden both also knew ASL, PSE was just easier to say aloud while signing so it was easier for the rest of the family to learn. See, me and Linden weren't born deaf, which was one of the reasons neither of us have a deaf accent, but we did start losing our hearing when we were preteens, and I lost nearly all of it when I became thirteen.

They knew me and Linden could both read lips, but reading lips wasn't really an exact science, it was always a sort of guessing game, whereas signing was more definite and a lot less brain work. "It was amazing, and huge!" Daisy signed while she spoke with a big smile.

I saw Sage's shoulders bounce up and down from laughter, he then signed and said aloud, "That's what she said."

Daisy shot him a weak glare in return, though we all knew there was nothing behind it, for Daisy couldn't hurt a fly even if she wanted to.

"Why aren't you wearing your hearing aids?" Mom asked after she set our breakfast down before us, just plain cereal.

"Didn't feel like it," Was all I answered.

I quickly devoured my cereal and shot up out of my seat, grabbing Linden and dragging him away from his unfinished breakfast. I was pretty sure he was yelling complaints but I didn't turn so I couldn't tell, and I also didn't really care. I quickly slipped on my jacket, as fall was steadily approaching, and threw Linden's jacket at him. "Hurry!" I signed, then pointed to the clock which read 7:04. We had eleven minutes, and school was already a ten minute walk, so guess we're running. Once he pulled his jacket on and bag in hand I tapped his shoulder, "Race you," Was all I signed before bolting out the door.

We both arrived at the school panting for breath. "I win," I said beaming with pride.

I didn't sign, for last night Linden and I agreed no signing on school grounds. We had gone to a hearing school before and last time it didn't end well. People stared, called us names, tried to 'test' our deafness by sneaking up on us from behind and screaming? We even once had a break between a test and the teacher yelled at us for signing saying we could be sharing test information and gave us a detention. So yeah, no sign language at school. Sure, if someone comes along and asks, 'Hey, you deaf?' Then yeah, I'll say yes. But that doesn't actually happen thanks to the fact that apparently I don't 'sound deaf' or 'look deaf' according to people, so I doubt anyone's gonna ask anytime soon.

"Well, we still gotta hurry, so I'll see you at lunch," Linden spoke as we walked into the school, not at a loss of breath anymore, and handed me my schedule that he had crumpled up in his back pocket.

No one else was in the halls, most likely because there was only three minutes till the bell rung. I just prayed I could feel the vibrations of the school bell when it went off or I will be pretty confused, oh no, I didn't even think about announcements. Ugh.

Putting all those thoughts aside, I made my way up the stairs then parted ways with Linden. Freshmen and sophomores were on the first floor, while juniors and seniors on the second. I was a junior, so my classes were on the top floor. Finally I found my first class, biology. I walked into the room and low and behold, everyone was staring at me. Yay.

I looked to the teacher to see him mid-sentence, which made my mind race to catch up. It didn't help that one, he wasn't facing me, and two, he had a beard, both of which always made lip reading harder for me. All I was able to get was, "...class...new...please...introduce yourself," Then he turned to me and looked at me expectantly.

Alright, guess it's time to talk. "Hi, my name's Violet Parker. It's nice to meet you all," I gave them a small smile then looked over to the teacher again.

He said something, then pointed to an empty seat that I assume he wanted me to go sit in. I scurried over there and dropped my bag underneath my chair. After only a few moments, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned my head to the right to see a girl, she had wavy platinum blonde hair, fair skin, plump peach lips, and deep blue eyes. "Name's Kate," She seemed to whisper, and by the way he mouth moved, I could tell she had an accent of some kind, though I couldn't really tell what kind. I was never good at that.

I returned her grin, "Violet, but you already knew that," I spoke at the same volume, or I hope I did.

I looked back to the teacher to see his back was turned, and suddenly everyone started getting out their notebooks. Just going with the flow, I did too and got a pencil ready. Then, everyone started taking notes, but I didn't see anything to take notes on on the board, so I guess they were jotting down what he was saying, great. I sighed to myself, whelp, nothing I can do about that can I? Did no one inform the teacher that the new kid was deaf? I knew I didn't want it broadcasted to everyone but seriously, the teachers could at least know.

The rest of the day until lunch went by similarly to the first class; teacher making me introduce myself, sitting down, getting completely lost in the lesson, go to next class. Apparently though, Kate and I share the same fourth bell class, as we were currently sitting next to each other again. I noticed how everyone was sneaking looks at the clock, so I guess lunch was coming soon.

Just as predicted soon enough everyone rose from their seats and started flooding out into the hallway. As I stood, I felt a tap on my shoulder again, and looked to see Kate, "Hey, wanna go to lunch together?" She offered.

"Sorry, but I'm eating with my brother," I declined.

"Okay, maybe tomorrow," She waved bye as she walked out the door.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and sent a quick text to Linden.

Vee: Where do you want to meet up?

Almost immediately he answered back.

Lin: How about at the end of the lunch line?

Vee: Alright, see you