Unheard of Love

Chapter 8

The summer had come to a close. I was standing all alone in front of the doors at Helen Berstein school. It was my first day at this new school. My first time ever at a hearing school. Matthew, Elizabeth and Travis had arrived before me, so they were already inside the building. I opened the heavy white doors and was swamped with teenagers. My class schedule shook in my hands as I wieved inbetween the crowds. I headed up to the second floor, looking for room 274. My first class was History. Searching for the class I realize that the halls began to clear out. That was weird. Before i knew it, I had ended up in the cafeteria. Ugh! I was lost.

I slung my bag off my shoulders and began digging through looking for a map of the school. I finally found it and I start to wonder the empty halls until I found the correct class.

I walk in and everyone just stares at me. Quickly, I scurry my way into an empty seat in the back. Probably the worst seat in the whole room to be able to read her lips. Sliding into my seat I realize everyone around is still staring at me. I glance up at the teacher. She was standing with her arms crossed over her chest glaring at me. Her right foot was tapping the ground as if she was waiting for something.

"________" she says.

I feel the anger boiling up inside me. Taking a deep breath I write on a piece of paper. So sorry I'm late, I got a little lost. I'm new to the school. Grabbing the piece of paper, I walk up to the front of the room and hand it to the teacher. The note seems to take her by surprise because she continues to stare at it.

"Why didn't you just say this out loud? Are you embarrassed by being the new kid?" She asks.

I decided if I replied to my teacher in sign language she would understand everything. "No. I+ deaf" I signed. I look around at the classroom. Blank faced, and wide-eyed they stared at me. All the kids acted as if they've never seen someone use sign language before. I went back to my seat and sat down.

The teacher finally started class. Papers regarding class expectations and rules were handed back to me. The clock slowly ticks by as I wait for class to finish. Kids begin getting up from their seats and grabbing their stuff. I see the teacher say something else, but the kids blocked my view of her lips. I stay seated and stare up at the teacher. I hadn't seen a bell light go off, yet all the kids were leaving the class. My teacher walks closer to me. "The bell rang, you can leave now." Nodding my head I get up from my seat and leave.

Back in the crowded hallways, I get shoved from side-to-side. I watch as a tall guy goes running down the middle of the hallway. People crowd to the sides to get out of his way. Swerving through the crowd of wild hearing students, I find the flight of stairs. I climb the steep stairs up to the top floor of the school. The fading summer sun shines brightly through the windows. I follow my map til I arrive at room 312, which was my Chemistry class. I walk in and see a group of students sitting on desks in the middle of the classroom.

For this class, I grab a seat close to the front of the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a guy sit down at the lab bench I was at. I look over to see Brandon.

"You have this class?" He asks. I nod. "Wanna be lab partners? But I have to warn you I'm not ____ good at Chemistry. I often _____ make things explode by accident"He adds. I grin at his comment. I didn't care how bad he was at chemistry, I just wanted to be his lab partner. "You any good at Chemistry?" Brandon hopefully asks me. Before I have a chance to answer the teacher walks to the front of the room.

The teacher was a tall white man. He had very little hair on his head. He wore a plaid blue shirt with dark jeans. The teacher begins speaking.

"Hello _____ and welcome to ___________. I'm your teacher Mr. Sandy. I'm passing out a ________. Please read through the ________ thing before you start answering the questions. This is just to_____ where you're at."