Untitled So Far, a switched at birth fanfic

"Come on Skylar, get your ass out of bed." Mom yells to wake me up.

"I don't feel good!" I lie.

"I don't care, you need to get up and go to school. First day back, you can't miss it. You're driving yourself. Okay, gotta go to work, love you bye." She yells nonchalantly. I roll my eyes and get out of bed.

Our house is still piled with boxes.

Seriously, who moves the day before school starts?

I get ready for school as quickly as I can, scanning through boxes for different materials I may need, and end up leaving the house late.

I type the address into my phone and drive to school, only to arrive ten minutes late. After parking, I sigh.

"Carlton High School…" I say aloud, to myself, "God I hope you don't suck as much as Midwood did."

I walk into the building and no one is in the hallway. I can't seem to find the office, and am about to give up hope when I see a red-haired girl.

"Excuse me." I say, but she doesn't respond. She seems upset about something. "Excuse me." I repeat, but she still doesn't respond.

Agitated, I walk faster to catch up with her and tap her on the shoulder.

"Can I help you?" She asks with a weird accent, moving her hands while she talks.

"I'm sorry to bother you," I start, "but I can't find the office. I'm new here."

She looks me up and down in disgust.

"Of course you are," she says, still moving her hands, "How dare you come here. Sorry, I don't help poor little hearing people when they don't get everything they want."

She stomps away.

Hearing people? Was she using sign language? Was she deaf?

Finally, I find the office.

"Excuse me, there seems to be a problem." I say slowly, hoping she'll be able to read my lips in case she's deaf.

"Uh, yes. What's the problem?" She asks. She doesn't use her hands when she talks.

"Is this a deaf school?" I ask, "I'm not deaf. Is this Carlton? That's where I registered."

"This is Carlton, and it is a half-deaf, half-hearing school. This is the first year that hearing students were welcome as much as deaf students. What's your name? I'll look you up." She asks, clearly agitated.

"Skylar Bradley." I say.

She types on her computer and makes a face after a moment.

"Well you've missed your first class Ms. Bradley. Don't make a habit of it." She says, grabbing a sheet of paper from the printer behind her. "Here is your class schedule, don't be late to your next class."

She resumes her work and I awkwardly thank her.

"ASL 1" I read aloud, and lights flash around me, followed by a bell. "Room 327, Building B… well where the hell is that?" Students rush around me as I try to read the map attached to my schedule.

I see the red-haired girl from earlier and start walking the other way, looking down at my map. Wherever my first class is, I hope it's not in the direction she's walking. I feel a thud and fall to the ground when someone knocks me over. I guess I should have been paying attention to where I was walking.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry." I say, looking down to pick my stuff up. "That was my fault."

I look up when I see a hand outstretched to help me up. A red-haired boy is looking at me, expecting me to take his hand so I do. He hands me my map and schedule before making gestures toward me.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm not deaf. I don't know what you're saying." I say and he smiles at me.

He gestures that it's ok, and I smile back at him. A black-haired girl comes over and kisses him on the cheek.

"Hey!" She says, waving to him.

He signs to her something I don't understand.

"Oh, hi, I'm Bay." She says, turning toward me, still making gestures. "You must be a hearing kid… welcome to the club. This is Emmett. He's deaf. He said he's sorry for running into you."

"Oh, well it was really my fault. I was looking down and trying to figure out where I'm going. This school is huge." I say.

"Oh, where are you going? Maybe I can help." Bay says. "What's your name?"

"Skylar… most people just call me Skye." I say, smiling slightly. "I'm going to something called ASL 1? Not really sure what that is or why I'm taking it but it's in room 327 in Building B."

Bay is signing everything I'm saying so Emmett can understand.

"Oh! That stands for American Sign Language. It'll help you communicate with half of the kids around here." She laughs, "I'll walk you there."

She turns to Emmett and gives him a kiss. "I'll see you later?" she asks, and he nods, smiling.

"So, how did you end up at Carlton?" Bay asks as we walk.

"Well, my mom and I just moved here and this is where she registered me, so I guess here I am." I say, with a slight laugh.

"Ahh. Where'd you move from?" She asks.

"New York." I say.

"You are so lucky. I've always wanted to go to New York… I'm an artist so it's definitely my kind of town." She says. "Well, here you are. Room 327, Building B. Have fun signing."

I walk into the classroom and it's finally loud.

We learn a bunch of signs in the first day, and it's really hard to keep up. I made sure to learn one sentence today: "I'm bad at signing."

The rest of the classes are the same classes that one would find at any high school: math, science, reading, history, etc.

I'm headed to my car to go home when Emmett stops me.

"How did your first day go?" He signs slowly and moves his lips slowly, so I can read them. It's hard, but I manage to figure out what he's saying.

"Well, everything was okay except for my sign language class." I say slowly, "I'm bad at sign language." I sign that time.

He gets a big smile and shakes his head no. "You're not bad." He signs.

"Thank you." I sign back. Apparently I picked up more than I thought I did.

"So you can all of a sudden sign now?" Bay asks, stomping over to us. She's angry.

"No, no, no, not at all. I just remembered a few words from class." I say, "I'm not a good at it at all."

Emmett and Bay sign something back and forth but they move too fast for me to follow. I'm about to walk away when Emmett runs in front of me to stop me. He signs something to me, moving his lips along with his hands, but I still don't catch it.

"He said he wants to help you learn sign language. He taught me everything I know, so he knows he can do it. Hey! You didn't teach me everything I know, I looked up a lot on my own!" She starts off talking to me, but her focus goes back to Emmett.

He hands me his phone, which is open to creating a new contact. He wants my number?

I smile at him and put my phone number in his phone. He makes the motion for texting, and I nod.

He puts his arm around Bay and they walk to the parking lot. I stay behind making sure it doesn't look like I'm following them.

Mom is not home when I arrive, so I start unpacking my room. My phone vibrates on one of the boxes. Emmett had texted me while I was unpacking.

Sorry if Bay seemed a little harsh earlier. She gets jealous sometimes when she sees me with other girls, especially if those girls are hearing.

I responded:

Maybe you shouldn't talk to other hearing girls then. :P

He replies:

No, it's fine. Meet me tomorrow morning before classes at the fountain and I can help you with your signing.