New story! Not sure how the update schedule for this will be, since this chapter alone took me 3 days and it isn't even that long! But enjoy!
Logan Mitchell gripped the hook of his backpack as he exited the car, giving his mother a quick kiss on the cheek as he swung the bag around, securing it on his back. Students of all ages pushed past him, hurrying to get into the school before the late bell rang. Logan chuckled a little to himself, it was only the first day of school, and already people were worried about being late.
"Logan, honey, stay safe alright? Listen to your teachers and do as you're told."
The said raven sighed lightly, before moving his hands in a practiced manner of sign language as he replies. 'I know Mom, don't worry it's only school.'
She smiled at him before kissing her fingertips and blowing him the kiss, causing Logan to blush in embarrassment as a few students watching him chuckled. 'Mom, really?' he asked her, glaring a little as she giggled at him.
"Just go, Logan, or you'll be late."
He nodded a little, before setting off towards the large double doors that was the entrance to his new high school. Diverting his gaze down towards the time table in his left hand, and the small, unhelpful map in his right, he came to the conclusion that he had to find room 105 for home room first.
He looked towards the small map again, yup, no help at all.
Of course, while looking down to the sheets in his hands, Logan hadn't been paying attention to where he had been walking, wincing and being knocked to the ground as three boys charged around the corner straight into him.
Logan lay there for a few seconds, slightly dazed from where his head had connected with the hard floor beneath him, while the shortest of the three boys gasped.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright? I didn't mean to knock you over, sorry!" The male's tan face swam into Logan's limited vision, small canaries still flying around his head. The boy grabbed Logan's arm, hauling him up onto his feet. "I'm Carlos! Sorry for running into you!" Carlos rubbed his head sheepishly, still grinning.
Logan just stared at him, vision finally completely cleared from his fall, an amused smirk now placed on his face. He couldn't help but allow that smirk to grow into a grin as a confused expression crossed upon Carlos's face.
"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" He questioned, tilting his head slightly to the side curiously. Logan just smiled lightly at him, picked his bag back up and walked past him, chuckling at the other two taller boys' confused expressions. Carlos huffed, his cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. "Fine! I didn't want to know your name anyway!"
Logan stopped walking when a large, warm hand placed itself on his shoulder, pulling him back a little. He turned to face the person who grabbed him, a little surprised to see the tall, blonde boy, who he'd guessed was Carlos's friend, smiling at him.
"I'm Kendall, will you tell me your name?" His voice was calm, but it was obvious he was eager to get Logan to talk. He flicked his head a little to the side, forcing his bangs out the way of his green eyes.
Logan shook his head and tried to pull away, desperate to get to his homeroom. He looked down at the paper to remind himself of the room number as he tried to get out of Kendall's grip. 105, that's right.
Kendall's grip didn't let up, his blonde head leaning over Logan's shoulder and eyeing the timetable. "You're in room 105 for homeroom? Great! Same room as us, we'll lead you there, newbie."
The final boy, still nameless and tall to Logan, broke out into a grin. "We get to show the newbie around school? Awesome! This will do wonders for my 'good guy' image."
Kendall sighed from behind Logan, finally releasing his grip. "James, we're doing this to be nice and make friends, not for our ego and popularity."
James stuck his tongue out, squinting his eyes a little childishly. "Maybe you're doing it for those reasons, but I enjoy being popular thank you very much! Popularity is the first step toward being famous, and then everyone will know the name James Diamond!"
Carlos reaches up and cuffed James around the head, knocking him out of his little daydream. "Earth to James? You there buddy?"
James turned and grinned at the shorter boy. "James Diamond present! Now, let's get to homeroom!" Without missing a beat, James reached over and grabbed Logan's thin wrist, dragging him along through the corridors.
Logan tripped and stumbled over his own feet as he was pulled, trying to memorise the route. A left turn here, then a right, straight on for a little while, then another left, up the stair case, take a left at the top, continue down the corridor. Then, they got to the room with 105 on a plaque on the door.
"Well, Newbie, this is the homeroom where all the magic happens!"
"James calm down, he's new he's probably terrified by you, no wonder he won't talk to us! First Carlos knocks him over then you drag him around." Kendall sighed a little, rubbing his forehead with the tips of his fingers. James just shrugged in response, releasing his grip on Logan's wrist.
Logan quickly pulled away from the insane trio, Carlos still grinning at him excitedly. He pointed to the door lightly, signalling he was just going to go inside, and did so.
Once he entered, the teacher looked up from her desk, smiling when she saw him. "Oh, you must be Logan Mitchell! Come over here, I'll help you understand the map you were given, I understand it can be a little confusing at first." Logan smiled at her gratefully, thankful to have an excuse to get away from the three boys who were now arguing over whom was going to be sitting next to whom this year in homeroom. Due to their little group being an uneven number, and there being two to a desk, one of them would be left out no matter what. They didn't even notice Logan walking over to the teacher and handing her the map.
"Right," she began to explain. "It's basically colour coded. The number of the block is in bold black, here," She pointed to where the bold number 10 was. "This is the block we're in now. The bottom floor is marked with green lines and numbers, telling you where each room is, and the top floor is marked in red lines and numbers. For example," She pointed to where a green box was with the number 101 was. "This is the room directly below us, while this," She pointed to the red lines directly above the room 101, with the 105 written in red. "This is where we are now, you understand?"
Logan nodded happily, taking the map back from her.
She smiled reassuringly at him. "Sit wherever you want and don't be afraid to come to me if you need anything, I know moving schools can be difficult. It seems you made some friends already?" She questioned, pointing to the three boys that had lead him to the room. Logan went to shake his head, but stopped himself. He couldn't just blow the boys off, they had helped him after all, plus they seemed nice enough. He smiled at the homeroom teacher, and went over to the boys.
Carlos looked up as he approached, brown eyes shining with happiness. "James, look, you didn't scare him away!" He sounded genuinely amazed by this fact, causing James to hit him on the back of his head.
"Hey, I'm not that terrifying, just a little...forward!" James defended himself, unable to keep the grin off his face. Kendall, who had been strangely quiet throughout this, moved across a little on his desk, freeing a chair between him and the two other boys.
"You can sit down here if you like, newbie, we don't bite."
Logan nodded a little, taking the chair beside the blonde. He guessed he'd have to get used to the nickname "newbie", since he couldn't correct them with his name and apparently they'd been too busy arguing to hear when the teacher called him earlier before. He didn't mind though if he was perfectly honest, and by some stroke of luck one of the three boys could speak in sign, he'd be even happier.
However, when the other students that belonged to homeroom 105 began piling into the room, Logan changed his mind about trying to talk to the three boys in sign. He didn't want to be treated differently in Minnesota, it had been the whole reason he and his mother had moved.
In his Texan school, people hadn't understood of his disability, mocking him constantly. Logan has used to talk in sign confidently to his few close friends, who understood it, until people caught on to what he was doing. They would mock the language, looking up how to say vulgar words on the internet and using it against him. It got to the point where Logan stopped signing to his friends, growing apart from them due to his reluctance to communicate.
Of course, now Logan had realised he could have easily just wrote on a notepad to them instead of distancing himself completely, but his bullied mind had not processed that at the time, he just wanted the teasing to stop, and for that, the sign and communication had to also.
Kendall, James and Carlos continued chatting around him, not seeming really bothered that Logan wasn't contributing to the conversation. Maybe he could just fit in as the silent one, and then he'd never have to admit to being mute.
Mute, that small, four letter word that had defined his whole life. When people heard that you were mute, they immediately assumed that you were weak and useless, others sometimes assumed that you were deaf also, since sign language was also used by the deaf.
But no, Logan could hear perfectly well thank you very much. There was nothing wrong with his ears, he knew English fluently even if he couldn't speak it, and he also knew French and Sign, meaning he was fluent in 3 languages and very capable by himself.
Being mute didn't make him helpless, and yet again, people didn't seem to realise that. He couldn't talk, big deal, it didn't affect his everyday life an ability to look after himself.
Kendall snapped him out of his mental rant with a shake to the shoulder. "Yo, newbie, you alright? We gotta get going to class, let me see your timetable? You might be with one of us." His voice was calm and structured, he wasn't really expecting an answer, seemingly come to terms with his silence. Logan handed over the sheet of paper, watching at Kendall's green eyes scanned over it. "Looks like you have Math with James first, then English with me. For last lesson, you have Physical Education with Carlos, have fun keeping up with him. For the two lessons in-between, none of us are with you, sorry about that."
Logan just nodded in reply, gasping lightly when James gripped onto his wrist and pulled him out of the chair. This was going to be a long day with these boys.
Hope you liked it! I haven't gotten this story completely planned out yet, so if anyone has any small plotlines they want me to fit in somewhere to lengthen this story out, feel free to tell me in a review or Pm me! I'll do my best to get it in! Also, I'm going to try my best to reply to EVERY review, I'm always really bad with this but I will try my best! Thank you also to all the people I've been talking to on twitter lately, you guys make my day! :)