AN: I hope this is a good one ^^ I really tried to do everything as accurate as possible with looking things up and reading a lot.
Please enjoy ^^
Tino, a little boy who came from Finland. He moved to the little village not far from a big city in England. That was a very years ago. The boy was around the age of six when he and his parents moved.
He was a normal boy, who went to school normally and on a regular basis, not skipping classes or things like that. Tino was a very social person and loved to chat with people, though he knew when he had to be silent. He helped out with different kinds of things at home, like helping his dad in the garden.
But it was two years after they came to the little village. He had justed turned eight a few days before that, but the event that would come would forever change his life. It was during the long summer break. He was on his way, on trip. His parents didn't tell him to where, a little surprise that they had planned for him.
Suddenly a car went straight ahead of them. They tried to get away in time so that they would be safe, but it was allready to late. Like a split second after they had seen the car , the accident had allready happend. The other car crashed into them.
The crash took the lives away from Tino's parents who had gotten most of the hit from the crash. If that wasn't enough it also left something permanent on him. Not a trauma but he couldn't hear anymore.
Due to severe brain damage caused by the accident, his brain wasn't able to send the signals to his brain so making him unable to hear or in other words deaf. It was a huge shock to his grandparents. They were the people, who would take care of him.
They had to deal with the lose of their daughter but also from their son-in-law which they really liked. Tino's father had been a very nice man. They also had to accept the fact that their only grandchild lost the ability to hear.
Tino, himself didn't change at all when he found out the news about not being able to hear anymore. The told it to him by writing it down on a piece of paper, since he couldn't hear anymore and didn't understand sign language yet. He never showed that being deaf did anything to him.
He learned signlanguage to communicate with people. Tino was able to read lips when people talked. In that way he could also understand people when they don't speak signlanguage. It is only when they don't speak to fast that he can do that.
It was something that he could allready do, even back when he was able to hear. It had been a fun game, at least it was to him, that turned out to be very usefull in the end.
His friend Matthias, whose parents were Danes. They moved to the village about a years before the boy was born. Matthias was a happy-go-lucky kind of person and he was very passionate about the things that he loved.
It was him, who was one of the first to learn signlanguage with and for Tino. He was one of the friends he had still left. Most of them didn't want to adapt to his 'illness' and just left. Tino didn't really mind that they stopped showing up.
He realised that they had liked him for his cheerfull and funny nature but didn't care enough to learn signlanguage to still be able to talk to him. He was kind of sad when he realised that some people were just like that, but to him it mattered more that his close friends would still remain close to him.
He himself admitted that he had next to none connection or things in common with most of the people who called him their friend. They didn't really talk about themselves to him and were very closed, while he himself had always been rather open.
He didn't wanted to be mean to them and never said anything about the whole thing, that started to brother him around the time the accident. After that the thing that brothered him was gone because the people who caused the problem were gone.
Yet he was to nice to really admit that he felt like that towards the people who treated him like garbage after he had his incedent.
Mathias the friend who he remained the closets to, said that they if they didn't take Tino for who he was that they don't deserve him as a friend. A friend to him is someone who supports you in though times.
Tino never dissagreed on that fact since vision of friendship wasn't any different from his friends. He thought that he wasn one of the few people ho thought like that but was surprised when he read that many people agreed that that was the true meaning on the word friendship.
Tino's granparents were pretty said when they heard from their grandson that people acted like that when they heard about the boy's 'disability'. It didn't make him less human. He wasn't able to hear anything but that didn't mean that it was a reason to avoid him all together.
Also after that time there was another problem that started to come up and which he had a hard time telling people besides Matthias about. Ever since the boys that were in a grade higher than them found out that Tino had been officially declared deaf, they started to pick on his since they thought it was funny to pick on the guy that wouldn't be hurt by what they said eitherway.
That is what they always said to Matthias when they started poking around with the younger guy. Since the bullies would always stand behind him when they made fun of him, Tino was never able to make out what they said by himself. He always sighed Matthias to ask what they were saying.
He didn't need to hear to know that they would be saying something behind his back, in this case litterally. Tino assumed that the guys did this because they knew that he could read lips and would be able to understand what they said.
He could go to the the head of the school with it and say that he could 'hear' that they were making fun of him by reading their lips. He would have had evidence against them and that is what they tried to prevent from happening.
It wasn't like there weren't other people around when they guys started making fun of him but the fact that most of the people who saw it were younger than them, made the people to scared to talk to anyone about it since they wouldn't be able to fight against the stronger and older people.
Matthias saw it happening as well but he didn't tell anyone because Tino always begged him that he would not do that. Much to the annoyance of the Dane himself he didn't do that because his friend had asked for it. He even promised that he wouldn't do that. Matthias didn't want to break that promise, he didn't want to lose the thrust that his friend had in him.
What the bullies did was walk up to the group of two that had their table that they always sat on and when they were almost ready to leave they would come over to them and push Tino down on the chair he had been sitting on earlier. It would look very innocent like if a friend had pushed him back on his chair so that they could talk, that is how they are able to fool the teachers every time.
But in reality they would start hitting Tino on his back, hard because the guy were very muscular and assumably don't you know their own strenght as they keep admitting every time. One of them would start hitting him and starting to ask questions about random stuff so that even after so long they would not be prepared to say anything back.
Of course when they talked to the former Finn they would not get an answer since he didn't see any signs or could read the lip of the person who was talking to him. The bullies used that in their advantage. They would keep hitting him, harder and harder each time because Tino would have been unable to answer a question that he was unable to hear.
He would also not be able to see it so it made them feel like they are everything. They felt supirior because the avantage they had over him because of the disability of the to them younger guy.
But what most people just don't know because they don't care enough or don't want to engage in an interaction with him but also some other kids that were in their school, is that they like Tino can be nice guys even though their live isn't the same as their's.
One thing that is to add to know about the former Finn is that he still tries to help people in need, even though the communication with those people don't always go as planned. Though he tries to help the people around him, as much as they try to help him out with things.
'Matthias, you are a very odd guy. You know that don't you?' I motioned in singn language to the Dane sitting right in front of me at the table. I motioned since talking would be to hard to do. Since the Dane talked very slow I was able to just read what he was saying to me without hearing what he said in reality, that is impossible of course but I don't mind it that much.
It is kind of odd when you look around you and you see all the mouths of people moving but not actually hearing what they are saying, the noice that Matthias said always bothers the teachers isn't there and in a way I am happy that it is.
Most people say that they find it odd when I say that I don't like to be in the much of a crowd like we are now. I like spending time in smaller groups, like with friends or family but beside that I am not the person who likes to be in big groups.
It is a feeling that I am kind of used to by this point, I say kind of because I don't think that I will get completly used to this weird thing that happens from time to time. Though most of the time I don't pay attention to it, only a few times I notices the scene that sometimes make me want to chuckle.
' Hey I was able to explain your whole life perfectly, you were able to understand me and most important of all I was able to make you smile.' Mattias signed at me. He has become very good at it, I have to admit that. Maybe it is because he has been using it for a few years now.
'You were able to make me smile, I can't lie about that Matthias~" I signed to him as my eyes fell on the boy sitting alone a few tables away from us.
"What is it?" I couldn't hear what Matthias was saying, but I saw his mout move and was able to make it out by what I remember from the past. And well Matthias tends to use words and phrases a lot so sometimes I just know when he says something.
I pointed at tht eboy that I was looking at earlier, before I saw Matthais speaking to me. The boy who was sitting at the table was one of our clasmates and he was new here since the start of the school years, which was about a month ago or so.
His name is Berwald, A swedish guy that had moved to this country because of his fathers work. From what others told me he doesn't have a mom anymore, which I find very sad for him.
From what I have seen, he isn't much of a talker. It seems like he shelters himseld from the others and when I have to work with him, because no one else really wants to and people always claim Matthias. He uses notes to communicate with me. I don't know if he does that because of the fact that I am deaf or because he doesn't want to talk to me, I always guess the first option.
I don't think that he really liked me at all. He always looks at me with a pissed expression on his face. It feels like he is annoyed with having to work with all the time, which makes me feel a little bad.
Sometimes I am thinking of what I could have done wrong to him, that could have caused him to act that way to me. Up to this point I have been unable to find anything that could be it. I have always been as nice as possible to him, even trying to show him around the school on the first day. Matthias helped me a little though, since he could translate what I said.
I normally don't speak out loud because it is very hard to do when you can't hear what you are saying. People say that they sometimes mean something else that they have said and it is that what I can't figure out myself. Which makes me a bit worried that I have said something wrong when I was trying to communicate with words.
It is of course very hard for me to figure out how I sound to those people because of that. I wanted to know what I sounded like to others and asked Matthias to sign me what he could discribe as my voice. He said that my voice shakes a lot from what he assumes fear, he also said that I sound uncertain. What he said is true though.
I really feel likt that most of the time when I really try to talk to talk to people instead of doing comunication by signlanguage. Most of the people I meet don't know it so I try to communicate with them in others ways than.
I think I hurted Berweld feelings when I tried to be nice to him. I am starting to think more that it is something that I have sad that has upset him. Though my friend doesn't recall me saying something rude to him. He said that he would have known if I had done that since that isn't something that I do normally.
Matthias, one of my only friends is mostly around me to prevent that I don't have a way to communicate with the people around me or to ask for help. He keeps me company, while helping me and even protecting me.
Is case of when the bullies, which Matthias has mentioned before in his story, come he tries to sign me as fast as he can so that we can try to get them to leave as soon as possible.
Though reading sign language isn't that easy if they shake you back and forward. The discription of how the bullies act is spot on. I almost have nothing to add to that.
I am most of the time afraid, no terrified to go in the cafeteria to eat during the lunch break. Even if my friend is around me, I am simply terrified to be here since I know that they will come any minute and beat me.
It is not real beating but I still get many bruises on my back because of them hitting me with extreme forse. That has resulted in me getting pushed into the wooden table more than once.
My grandparents, who take care of me every since my parents passed away don't know anything about the bruises, since I have been trying to hide them. My grand mother always say how bad grandpa's health is and I just don't want it to make it worse.
They have enough things to worry about, which allready include me and I just don't want to end up making that worry worse and maybe something bad will happen. The already have a hard time raising me with the money they get from their retirement, but besides those problems we still have fun.
I look at the former Swede who was still sitting on the same spot as before, all alone. 'Everything okay over there?' I signed to him when he looked in my direction. He looked away as soon as I finished my sentence. I frown appeared on my face. I just asked if he was okay, it isn't like I said something rude to him.
Matthai must have noticed the look on my face change from the normal smile to a frown, since he looked at the direction I was looking at before going back to keeping an eye on the bullies. Making sure that if they walked up to us that we could leave as quick as possible.
I looked at my friends distressed face for a little, I feel really bad that he had to go through all of that because of me. He has told me several times that I don't have to do that, so that is what I try to do. It was than when I noticed the piece of paper in the form of paper plane.
It carefully landed on the table. Which I found very surprising that it landed so perfectly on the wooden surface. I picked up de raher small plane that was between me and Matthias. I noticed blue inkt and figured that he had written something on it. I knew that it was male because of the handwriting.
I unfolded the small piece of paper, the text became visible. ' Look up, please' I raised an eyebrow at it, but did what was of the paper. I looked at the direction it came from and saw Berwald sitting there. Was it him who sended me that letter?
I saw the former Swede look in a book of some sort. The blonde looked up and did something that I would have expected from him.
'I am doing fine..' He paused to look down again, which would be a book about signlanguage. 'Thank you for caring so much to ask.' He signed to me. Seeing that put a smile on my face.
Why it made me so happy to see him learning signlanguage for me,is something I am unable to explain.
I guess the cheer happiness if seeing someone trying to talk to me by using sign language, someone trying to understand me. Not that there haven't been people who have been trying to do that before, Matthais and Lukas did. Well Lukas tried it a bit but after some mistakes he was getting more fustrated from it than it benifitted me.
Lukas is a boy , who doesn't really say that much. Whne he does he speaks compared to people other people really slow. That is why I don't really mind that he has stopped learning signlanguage after a very akward attempt to try to say something. He rarely speaks and I would feel bas if he would have to learn it just for that.
From what I remember from in the past and what I can see , is that Matthias a very fast speaker. I had a hard time understanding him when I could still hear so now it would have been even harder to see what he is saying. So I am happy that Matthias was willing to learn sign language for me, he wanted to be by friend even after the others had left.
Though I think that Lukas being not much of a talker added to the fact that I would have been able to help him to get closer to the boy he loves so much.
Lukas' family had moved to England long ago. According to him his grandparents moved in the 1960's. I have known them for a pretty long while since they are the people who have raised Lukas. Like me he has lost his parents when he was very young.I think that is the reason why I get so along with him.
But the happiness in my mind and heart was short lived because a second after the thought was in my mind I felt something hitting against my shoulder.
Our plan to escape has failed.