The Silence

Chapter One

Saint:

The car stopped at the curb and I stifled the urge to sigh. Were we here already? School was the worst part of my day and always took up the most part of it.

"We have dinner with the Madison's at eight." My father said and I rolled my eyes, tugging my headphones around my neck back up over my ears. "Don't be late." He managed to squeeze in just before my music started blasting through the speakers and I couldn't hear him anymore. Maybe I was wrong. Going home might be the worst part of my day. I scrambled out of the car and slammed the door shut without looking back at my father.

I sighed heavily and tossed my backpack over one shoulder, flipping through the playlist on my phone. All around me there were students ambling around, dressed immaculately in their perfect little private school uniforms. I tugged at my leather jacket and felt the weight of my cigarettes in the left pocket. How many did I have left?

I took my time walking to around because father always had the chauffeur drive us over early so I could 'get a fresh start'...yeah, fuck that. I sat near the water fountain for a while, staring at the reflection of the birds hopping about on the edge as they dunked their faces in and shook out their feathers. It looked refreshing. When the bell rang for registration, I slunk off along with everyone else. I strolled in while Mrs Brussels was calling out the register and I still had my headphones on, but I didn't need to take them off to know what she was saying to me. The same thing she said to me every morning.

"Tardiness is ungentlemanly, young man." She'd say with her stiff British accent and her lips pursing so hard her lipstick cracked. I nodded in her direction and stumbled to a stop when I got to my seat. I wasn't much of a teacher's pet, but they seemed to bother me less if I sat in the front of the class instead of in the back where they couldn't see what I was really up to. Everybody knew I sat in the furthest corner of the front row in class. So who was this sitting in my seat?

His hair was curly and just long enough to not violate the school's rules about hair not touching your collar. Said collar was ironed perfectly and stuck out just right from the school's sweater that we were given to wear in winter. Even the sweater looked new.

"Hey." I said out loud but the new guy didn't look at me. "Hey!" I said louder, nudging his chair, MY chair, and that finally made him look up at me. I had never seen eyes so blue before in my life. They were so bright and beautiful that I was stunned enough to forget what I wanted to say to him until he blinked and looked forward, probably in the direction of Mrs Sprout.

I followed his eyes and saw her standing much closer this time, her arms folding as she stared at my headphones with disapproval. I swallowed another sigh and pulled them off.

"Mr Colton." She started.

"He's in my seat." I said, somewhat petulantly. I sounded like I was 5 instead of 17.

"Mr Carter has been assigned this seat. There's a seat two spaces back." She pointed to the side of the room and I wrinkled my nose.

"But it's my seat. I always sit here." Mrs Brussels' chest heaved as she sighed.

"Find another seat, Mr Colton." She said calmly and spun around to dismiss me. What the hell? I stole a glance at the boy in my seat, and my chest squeezed for some reason when I found him watching me already. Why were his eyes so blue? I looked away quickly and slunk off towards the desk she'd pointed me too. I dropped my bag down on the desk noisily and huffed as I sat down. First day of the new semester and shit was already a mess. Just like my life. I was sick of new. New house. New car. New Mom...I sighed and pulled off my head phones, tucking them inside my backpack and rummaging around for my pen. When I found it, I clicked it and flipped open a page so I could copy the lesson timetable that was up on the screen. I was almost done with it when I felt a tap at the side of my desk and a piece of paper slid held by a pretty hand slid into view.

"What?" I said to Veronica who rolled her eyes at me and just tossed the ratty page on the desk.

"I don't know. It came from Zac." She said, flipping her blonde hair back over her shoulder. I had told her once it was pretty and she'd laughed in my face. I dropped my pen and opened the paper. Zac's messy scrawl was getting worse every year.

'Meet me by the fountain for lunch?' I read and looked at the back of the class where he was sitting. I gave him a nod and sat back in my chair.

Mrs Brussels' voice droned on and on about I didn't even know what and I found my eyes drifting back towards my old seat. Clark, who was in the desk in front of me was already asleep so I had a clear view of this Mr Carter. He was sitting up straight and watching the front of the class, but unlike the rest of us, his pen wasn't moving. His hands were curled on the table in fists. They were nice hands though. At least from what I could see this far away. They looked small and neat and dainty. Piano fingers. I was so busy day dreaming about who my new classmate was, I got a fright when the bell rang to dismiss us. I spared him one more glance before I was swept up in the crowd of students making their way to their first classes.

I was tugging a cigarette from my box with my lips when Zac found me.

"When are you going to quit doing that?" He asked, wrinkling his nose. I lit it quickly and blew some smoke in his face just to irritate him. He waved it away while he glared at me. "Seriously?" I ignored his question because honestly, it wasn't about being cool or even being rebellious. I had started smoking because it was the one new thing I had chosen to do. Everything else had been chosen for me. Zac would sneer at that and call me crazy. Smoking kept me sane.

"I hate this fucking school." I muttered just to change the subject.

"You say that every year." He leaned against the fountain and folded his arms.

"Because I fucking hate it." I said again, taking a puff and blowing up into the sky. My dad's family had built this school though, so I was here to stay. He smirked at me and scanned the courtyard.

"I don't know. It has it's moments." He said, watching a group of girls who had somehow managed to transform their uniform skirts into mini-skirts. I snorted and tapped at my cigarette, watching the ash fall down into the grass. Zac was easy to distract sometimes. And yet he still managed to be the teacher's pet in most of his classes. It was probably the blonde hair and blue eyes. Speaking of teacher's pets and blue eyes.

"Hey. So, who's the new guy?" I asked, trying to sound uninterested.

"The new guy?"

"Mr Carter." I said rolling my eyes.

"Oh, you mean Julian?" I wrinkled my nose at that. Stuck-up name. It sounded better as Carter. "He's a transfer."

"Really? From where?"

"No one knows." I raised my eyebrow at that. This school thrived on gossip.

"Seriously? Nobody's asked him yet?" I hissed as the cigarette in my hand burned down to my fingers and I dropped it, shaking out my hand.

"You're going to burn the school down one day." He said sagely. "And no, no one's asked him. They can't."

"What do you mean they can't?"

"Julian Carter is deaf."

A/N: Hi there. I'd like to start off by saying that I only started writing on this app a few months ago, but I've been writing since high school. (Don't ask me how old I am.)

Therefore, this is not my first attempt at an original story, but it is my first attempt to actually freaking FINISH one, so...please be patient with me. I don't know how often I'll update because this is a side project mostly for myself. Thank for reading though. I hope you like where I want to take this story.