The Silence She Speaks✔

Three-Alex

Mom went up the stairs to unpack. The little scar-faced girl stood there awkwardly, as if trying to decide if it was safe to even breath. "You can sit down, you know," I called from the couch. She jumped and nodded.

She silently walked over to the very edge of the couch and sat down slowly. She sat perfectly straight and looked down.

"That can't be comfy," I sighed. She jumped again and I slowly inched over to her. I lifted up her legs and placed them on the couch. "See, that's way more comfy," she blushed and shrugged.

"Quinn?" Dad called from the kitchen, peeking at her from the breakfast bar. "Will you be joining us for dinner?" She shook her head.

"Not hungry?" I asked. She shrugged. "You should at least try to eat."

"Alex don't push her," Dad ordered. "If she doesn't want to eat, then she doesn't have to."

"Sorry," I said to them both. She shrugged.

"So what grade are you in Quinn?" Camryn asked, definitely excited to have another sister around. She held up six fingers. "So you're in middle school now?" She nodded. "You hear that, Mason? She's in middle school too."

"Yeah?" Mason nodded, as he and Devin came back from the kitchen. "Then I'll show you around when we go to school." The girl just nodded. "Is that okay?" She nodded again. "Our school isn't like most schools so it's easy to get lost," Mason continued. "All grades are put into one large building. A part of the building is separated for each school. So there's the high school section, the middle school section, and the elementary section. Kind of weird, I know." She shrugged.

"Try your best not to go into the high school section," Devin warned. "Those guys are vicious."

"Let's try not to scare her, okay," I sighed, annoyed with my brother. Devin could be a real airhead sometimes. Quinn didn't want to be hearing something scary about a place she'd be spending so much time in.

"Do you like books?" Camryn asked. She nodded vigorously. That was a change. "I think you'll like the library, it's huge." Quinn's face seemed to light up, she still didn't smile though. "Do you like adventure books?" Again, she nodded. "Yeah, you're going to love the library. The librarian is awesome too. She lets you check out as many books as you want, and she really likes adventure books. You'll get along great, I'm sure." Nerdy Camy is someone out again.

"The art room is pretty cool too," I said. Her face lit up even more. She looked up at me with curiosity radiating off of her. "The teacher is a really cool dude and he's really helpful. I used to not be able to draw anything at all, and now I'm in the art fair." She nodded, completely interested. "I'm guessing you like art too?" A joyful nod. "Good, he'll love you."

"Lunch is like five star meals every day," Devin said. "You can get anything, and you won't find any other pudding better than the school's." She nodded, it looked like she was listening closely. "Whatever you do, though, don't get the lasagna. Nobody knows what's in that stuff, but, whatever it is, it does bad things to your stomach. Tony Connell ate it once and had to get his stomach pumped. Claire McNulty threw up so many times she had to go to the hospital. That's only a few stories, there's way more. We call it the atomic waste." He wiggled his fingers and made a spooky "oooh" sound. Quinn shook her head quickly and wrinkled her nose.

"Gross!" Mason cringed, disgusted. "I'll never get that stuff."

"Good idea," I laughed.

"Oh yeah, do you like gym?" Mason asked. She nodded. "Oh man, you'll love this gym class. We have basketball courts, a tennis court, and a soccer field, we use it for football mostly though. Oh yeah, and the track runs around the football field. It's super cool, and the teacher is super fun. Plus, the school washes all of your dirty gym clothes for you."