Chapter 1 - Silence
Silence. lt's all I hear.
Silence. The best sound in the world.
Silence. It can reveal a lot.
Silence. It's the key to finding peace with yourself.
Or so I thought when I made my decision years ago.
*
Once again I'm standing. Standing, silently listening. Listening to them spit cruel words at me, hoping to hurt me. The same way I've been hurt my whole life.
"Why so quiet, silent Ellie?" Asked Rose the same way she has everytime her and the rest of the group bullied me.
Everytime she asked I would reply with silence, and group would start laughing at how "weak" l was.
The only person, who never laughed or even spoke to me or about me, was their so called 'Leader'. Luke.
"No answer, huh? I always wondered why you don't talk. Now that I think about it, I've only ever heard you say one word. 'Here'. You say it every single day during attendance, but other than that you never said a word. Why?" Said Rose.
My response; Silence.
"I'm bored of bullying her, she never talks. Can we just find someone else to bully, someone who at least talks?" Asks Travis, another one of the bullies, breaking the silence.
"No," responded Rose. "The other ones would snitch and l don't think any one of us wants to get kicked out of another school just yet."
"Fine! I guess we'll stick with her!" Answered Travis.
The bell rings so they leave me there. Standing while watching them leave. I continue to stand there for the next minute or two. And after I became sure they were gone, that's when I started walking to my lesson. I have science with Ms Brown, so it doesn't matter if I'm late or not.
As I 'm walking to science l bump into someone and fell down, dropping all my books to the ground. I look up and see it was a guy from a year above me and I don't know why but he looks so familiar to me.
I quickly stand up and sign "sorry, I wasn't looking" even though i knew he wouldn't understand what l'm trying to say.
But surprisingly he signs back saying "Are you deaf? Not trying to be mean or anything. Just curious."
At this moment I can't feel anything but shocked.
And i think it's obvious as he then signed "Are you okay?"
To which l sign back with "Yes I'm fine and no l'm not deaf l just don't talk."
"So I don't have to use sign language?" He asked by actually talking.
I sign in response "No you don't have to."
"OK. Anyways I'm so sorry l wasn't looking either. I'll help pick up the books." He says as he starts to lower himself but I quickly stop him.
I sign "You don't have to. l don't want you to waste your time."
"Yes I do. Besides. I got Spanish and hate it so you're doing me a favour in coming up with an excuse for being late." He then starts picking up the books. I quickly lower myself to help him pick them up.
"You haven't told me your name yet, what is it?”He asks as he hands me the last few books.
I sign "Elliana. Ellie for short."
"Eliiana? That's a lovely name. I'm luka."
"Nice to meet you luka." I whisper.
A shocked look appears across his face.
"I thought you said you can't talk!" He whispers back to me.
"I said I DON'T talk, not that I CAN'T talk." I sign in response.
But just as he is about to say something I run off to my science lesson.
