Foreign To This World

26

"I knew you would love it!" said my mom,quickly hugging me back. "Hey! No hugs for me???" Annie squealed and hugged us tight. Don't worry,I'm not going to leave you hanging,wondering what they got me! My mom had got me what I have been begging for like,3 years. It was a sign-to-speech headband,which had a tiny little camera,cleverly disguised in the delicate looking headband. It would record my sign language and translate it to English. The camera was weather-proof,so I could wear it the whole entire summer. I felt tears rushing down my eyes as I put the headband on. From now on,I can proudly write in my diary about MY speeches,and not only Annie's. I SAID (writing that feels great!) "Thank you so so much! It means a lot!" The voice that came out had sort of a British accent. We all laughed,but it took my mom a few days to fix it after she had messed it up and turned it into some gibberish language,then into Spanish,and finally,American English.

We were off to Miami in a rush,we prepared everything and we're going to stay there for a month since we had a special summer house there. We packed everything,the swimsuits,sunscreen,shades,flip-flops... It was so much to manage that we were literally about to forget a suitcase if it weren't for Annie. Now,before thinking of her as such a remarkable hero,let me tell you this: It was her suitcase.

The translator voice sounded exactly like when I once spoke a word. My voice was prettier than my body,actually. It was soft and gentle,and this was exactly how I imagined it to be. Also,sometimes Annie put little pranks on me and changed the voice settings on my headband. My most embarrassing moment was when someone asked us where we were going,and my headband said everthing through a grumpy dark voice. The poor man,creeped,out ran away and we never saw him again.I got so mad that I messed with her hearing aid,but we both promised not to do it again.

It was quite fun being in Miami,walking alongside the beach. We often saw cute boys,surfing. I really did want to learn how to surf,so did Annie. The next day,one of the boys noticed us looking at the surf boards and kindly offered to teach us. We both accepted,and soon learned that the boy's name was Mike,and his twin brother's was Luke. They were the sons of the Surf Supply Store manager.They both had sparkly emerald-blue eyes,light brunette hair. Pretty much the only difference was that Luke had little freckles on his cheeks and nose.

That day,we mostly fell in the water. Then got up,and fell again. Mike told us that he was happy that we didn't give up.

We would never give up. So we went there every single day to practice. One day,while going though some big waves,I lost my balance. The surf board was still attached to my foot,and I tried to pull myself up,but I ended up hitting my head on my surf board. I don't really remember anything else in the water. When I didn't come to the surface for a while,Luke started to get worried and probably searched for me. The only thing I remember is his lips,pressed hard against mine,giving me oxygen.

I opened my eyes and stared directly into his. He quickly got up,we both blushed. "Um,are you okay?" he asked. My heart skipped a beat. "Yeah,I guess. Thanks for saving me." I managed to gabble. From that moment,we knew that the boys had crushes on us.

We started hanging out even more with the boys,but after him saving me there was like this weird connection between Luke and I. Annie and Mike's story was rather different. And funny. One boy was really bugging Mike,and he broke one of the surfboards on Mike's duty. Mr. Carter ,Mike's dad,scolded him because he thought it was his fault. The next time that same boy broke something,Mike was banned from surfing for a week. Annie got really mad,so she searched for the boy everywhere,and when she found him,the boy never returned to the shop again. Turns out Annie kicked the hell out of him.

So Annie and I both had romance in our lives now. Things were starting to sound like a cheesy high school love story. Well,my life was finally getting better,and this was my summer to remember...