Chapter 10: Happy Birthday And New Skills
Today was a special day for the team and for Yami.
Today was Yami's birthday.
Since Yami had never really had a good birthday everyone wanted to make this one a day he would never forget.
Yugi and Tea thought it would be best if they took Yami down town while everyone prepared for the party.
They were current doing some groceries shopping and Yami was with Alan, the friendly butcher, again.
"Here you go Yami." He smiled as he passed the boy a bone.
Yami did what he would always do which was feel the bone and rub it against his face, almost as if he was blind.
"How old is he now?" Tea asked as she watched Yami and Alan.
"Well, according to Miwa he's now 17." Yugi explained.
Tea just nodded sadly and watched as Yugi went to tell Yami it was time to go...
When Yugi, Tea and Yami walked into Stan's house Yami noticed how dark it was.
He gently grabbed Yugi's arm and tried to see through the darkness.
Suddenly the lights turned and dozens of people jumped out from behind the sofa.
At first, Yami panicked but then he remembered he knew these people.
They were Stan, Alice, Emily, George, Miwa, Azula, Kaiba, Mokuba, Joey, Tristan, Grandpa and Honey.
"Happy birthday Yami!" They all exclaimed and Yami saw a ton of balloons and party decorations.
The party was truly amazing.
Yami got a robot toy from Stan and Alice, a box of chocolates from Emily and George, some new clothes from Miwa, a drum from Azula, some toy cars from Kaiba and Mokuba, a picture book from Honey, a board game from Yugi and Tea and some children movies from Joey, Tristan and Grandpa.
Yugi watched with a smile as Azula did some catching up with her little brother.
However, he noticed Tea was nowhere to be found and went to look for her.
He soon found her standing outside on the balcony.
"Hey Tea, your missing the party." Yugi said with a smile, but his smile fell when he noticed the tears in her blue eye.
"I wonder what it must be like to have only memories of pain and sorrow all your life then suddenly your thrown into a whole new world where people you've never known try and show you kindness and love you've never known." She wondered as tears streamed down her face.
"Tea, are you OK?"
"NO YUGI! I'M ANYTHING BUT OK, HOW CAN THEY LET THOSE MONSTERS ANYWHERE NEAR HIM AFTER THE HORRID WAY THEY TREATED HIM!" She cried angrily.
Yugi realised that she was talking about Azula and Miwa.
"Tea, they were Richard's victims as well as Yami." Tea began to calm down a little bit.
"But don't you want to know why? I'm not even talking as a nosey kid, I'm talking as a Human Being and I wanna know how another human being was put through this torture." She explained.
Yugi knew just what she was talking about.
"I know what you mean Tea but we just have to be patient."
But Tea just shook her head.
"I'm sorry but I can't do this any more."
Then she headed back to the house.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"To say goodbye to Yami, this will probably be the last time he sees me."
And then she was gone...
It had been three days since the party and sadly Yami was making as much progress as Honey and Stan would like.
"So he's not learning anything new at all?" Solomon asked. He, Yugi and Honey were sitting in a café talking about Yami.
"I fear that it might be the Critical Period Hypothesis." She said and took another sip of her coffee.
"The what?" Yugi asked.
"This hypothesis states that the first few years of life is the important time for an individual to gain a first language. If language input doesn't occur until after this time, the individual will never gain a full command of language, especially grammar."
Yugi suddenly had an idea.
"Maybe he doesn't need to talk."
Grandpa and Honey looked at him.
"If you think about, Yami does know the words but he just can't put them in a sentence, kinda like a mute person, and how do some mute people communicate?"
"Sometimes they write on paper or use sign language." Grandpa replied.
Honey realized what Yugi was getting at.
"You think we can teach Yami sign language?"
Yugi nodded.
"He does know what were saying and he is really good using his hands when expressing himself." Honey smiled.
"Ok I'll find Yami a teacher."...
It wasn't long before Yami taking sign language classes with, much to Yugi's horror, Rebecca Hawkins.
"I will go see the dentist tomorrow." She said slowly as she preformed the signs to go with those words.
He repeated her actions.
Rebecca smiled.
"Very good, now why not say something to Yugi?" She suggested and Yami turned around to face Yugi.
"Yami likes Yugi."
Yugi smiled and began to use sign language. "Yugi likes Yami too."
After Yami's lesson he began watching something on the TV while Yugi, Stan and Rebecca talked.
"He's a fast learner." She explained.
"Thanks for doing this Rebecca."
Suddenly Yami walked into the kitchen and looked at everyone.
They all stared into those crimson eyes, Yami then grabbed two cookies from the table and walked back into the living room
They just laughed...