AN: If you haven't read Language now would be a good time to do that! lol Enjoy!
Chapter One.
xox
Sam looked at Mercedes with bright eyes and signed wildly with his hands. Mercedes watch dumbfounded, until Ms. Pillsbury stopped him and smiled slightly, looking from Sam to Mercedes. "Sam, slowly, okay? Mercedes doesn't understand how to communicate yet." Ms. Pillsbury signed slowly enough to try to help the little girl try to associate words with signs. She didn't get it.
"What did he say?" She asked curiously.
Ms. Pillsbury smiled and signed as she spoke. "Sam was explaining how happy he is that you and him are friends now. He also said that he's glad because now he has someone to share his toys with."
Mercedes smiled and nodded in approval. If he would share her toys with him she would share hers. "Okay. Can you tell him that I'll share my toys with him too?" Mercedes saw that Sam was watching as she spoke, so she spoke slowly, remembering that Ms. Pillsbury told her that he would one day be able to read lips, and she wanted to help him learn.
Ms Pillsbury signed what Mercedes just said to Sam, and his eyes darted from her to Mercedes and he grinned and nodded enthusiastically. Mercedes smiled at his grin and then looked at Ms. Pillsbury, who in turn, was watching Sam slowly sign to Mercedes. The small girl narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to remember any of the signs that he made before. He repeated the same signs one more time, making sure Mercedes was paying attention.
Ms. Pillsbury patted the ground next to her, the young girl sat next to the older woman and Sam sat across from Mercedes, forming a small triangle. Mercedes sat cross-legged and Sam fiddled with something in his small bag and pulled out a zip-lock bag of apples. "Sam wanted to know if you would like to share lunches, he said that he saw a lot of other kids doing it and since you were his friend, he would like to know if it's okay."
Mercedes hesitated and then nodded, pulling out her own lunch box that contained two half's of a pb&j sandwich and some grapes. It was quiet for a few moments before Ms. Pillsbury took over and asked Mercedes a question, signing to Sam as she asked. "So, Mercedes, what's your favorite color?"
She hesitated before answering, lifting her hands, but not knowing how to make the sign for Purple. "My favorite color is purple." Ms. Pillsbury smiled and then repeated the words to Sam, signing slowly for her to remember.
"Sam, Mercedes favorite color is purple," She paused and looked at Mercedes and signed the word purple, and Mercedes repeated, she made the number two with her fingers and turned her hand sideways, then put her thumb in between the two fingers, this was hard for Mercedes, but after a few struggling moments, she did it. Then, Ms. Pillsbury put her arm near her chest and moved her wrist up and down so that the sideways fingers were now facing down to the ground, and lifting them up again back to the sideways position.
This word was hard and Mercedes frowned and tried it over and over until she thought she got it perfect, when she thought she did, she glanced at Sam for approval and smiled, except his teeth were covered in an orange peel, so he looked funny. This caused Mercedes to laugh really loud and hard, which in turn made Ms Pillsbury smile, and Sam laughed as well.
Sam spit out the orange peel and then returned the hand motion, Mercedes picked up on the word color, so she knew he was telling her his favorite color now. This was kind of easy! He lifted his hand and placed his thumb against the padding of the palm of his hand and waved a tightly made four sign. Mercedes blinked, this was a color?
Ms. Pillsbury spoke for him now, "Sam's favorite color is blue." She said, making the tight number four and waving her hand back and forth. Mercedes lifted her hand and did the same sign. "Blue." She repeated, then did her impossible favorite color, "Purple."
Just then the bell rung, signaling that it was time to return to class and recess and lunch was over.
Mercedes and Sam said goodbye to each other and she gave him an awkward hug before running off with her friends, back to her classroom.
Sam and Ms. Pillsbury walked back to class together, him signing to her how happy he was to make a friend and how fun it was going to be.
And though Ms. Pillsbury was engaged in the conversation with the young boy, she couldn't help but carry the burden that he didn't know he would have hanging from his shoulders, quite yet. He had made one friend today, it was progress, especially only after a few days of school. What would it be like for him when he was older? How many friends would he end up making? Ms. Pillsbury frowned, only slightly, not enough for anyone to notice, just a downward twitch in the corners of her mouth. What if Mercedes became his only friend? Even worse, (and it wasn't a question of 'what if's' this time, it was a question of) when will he start to be picked on about not being like other children? She knew it would happen and she knew just because he was deaf, didn't mean he couldn't hear didn't mean he didn't know.
All these things ran through her mind like a cyclone, as she nodded and smiled at the bright green-eyed boy who moved his hands wildly as he continued to plan out how he would continue to share his lunch and maybe even bring some of his favorite toys tomorrow for Mercedes to see.
AN: Thanks to everyone who responded to wanted a full story based on Language. This story will be slightly different than my previous fanfiction posted here. Starting in the next chapter I will provide a type of legend to help with how people communicate with and around Sam. If anyone would like to see any side pairings let me know which ones you guys like! Thank you guys!