"Hello! I'm Gavin!" The young brit holds out his hand for the taller boy to shake, but the blonde only stares at it, eyes wide. "Oh, do you not like touching?" he retracts his hand, "It's okay, my cousin don't like that, either. What's your name?" The other boy slowly makes four distinct shapes with his right hand, each seems to represent something, though Gavin can't figure out they mean.
"Uh, what?" he questions. The other child holds up one finger before walking towards the crafts table of their second grade classroom, soon returning with a thick blue marker and a few sheets of plain white paper. He bends over Gavin's desk to shakily write a few words at the top of the paper. He scribbles them quickly, then holds the paper out to Gavin.
Gavin accepts the note, sounding out the words in his head hurriedly, hoping the words will clear his confusion. In scratchy, crooked writing, the other boy had written;
"i am Ryan. i cant talk.
Gavin is shocked. He's known how to speak since he was two years old, and Ryan was already in second grade. He'd never learned?
"I can teach you!" He squeaks excitedly, eager to help, "It's easy, really!" Ryan sighs and shakes his head. Gavin notices that he looks sad. Ryan takes the paper from Gavin and writes a new note under the first.
i know how. i hurt my throat and cant make noise no more.
"Oh." Gavin says dumbly, "That's no fun. I'm sorry." Ryan looks at the ground. He's embarrassed, he's sad. He'd love to make a new friend, he's halfway through second grade and he hasn't had a playdate in two years, since first grade. He'd missed all of last school year and ended up in second grade while all his classmates were in third.
Due to this, no one wants to hang out with him anymore. He was now officially the weird kid who stayed back, not to mention the fact that he couldn't make any noise at all. He can't laugh at his classmates' jokes, he can't sing along in music class, he can't say hello to the teacher each morning.
He couldn't do anything the other kids could.
Ryan turns away from Gavin, planning to spend the rest of recess in a beanbag reading, like he normally does. He takes a few steps away before he hears Gavin yell from behind him.
"Hey!" He says, perhaps a bit louder than necessary, "Where are you going?" Ryan turns around, looking surprised.
"Don't you wanna play with me?"
Oh. Ryan thinks. The boys run off to the legos, Gavin spends his time building a large tower, and Ryan spends his building an airplane to knock it down.
The next weekend, Ryan has his first playdate in years. He decides it was well worth the wait.