"talking"
#Signing#
¤Writting¤
Chapter 10
Walter stood at the doors at the Mall closed to where he lived waiting for the rest of the team and Artemis to arrive, he looked at his clock and saw that it was close to the time they had agreed on.
People was milling around and it was a nice day to go to the mall as it was raining a bit, so a perfect day for the mall but Walter was not having a good day at the moment, as yet another person walked right into him and the woman had the nerve to glare at him as if it was his fault she couldn't see him, he wasn't even in the way as he stood to the side of the doors so not to be in the way.
He sighed as yet another person bumped into him sending him an irritated glance, Walter managed to not give in to the impulse to either sign something rude to the person or poke out his tongue at him.
A hand landed on his shoulder which made him jump and turn just to be greeted by a grinning Artemis and a man around her age.
#Hello Walter,# Artemis sign
#Hello Artemis,# Walter sign
#So you are the famous Walter, Arty has been talking about?# the man signed #Nice to meet you, Am Hermes.#
#Nice to meet you too,# Walter signed and glanced at Artemis who looked like she wanted to strangle Hermes.
#I don't talk about him all the time,# She signed in short annoyed signs
This made Hermes laugh which just made Artemis mock kick at him.
Walter felt a bit left out for some reason he couldn't understand.
#Ignore the idiot,# Artemis signed #I got all the brains in the family.#
Walter nodded
#He's your brother?# he asked trying to not show that he for some reason was relief about it.
#Cousin,# come the answer #And one of my usual interpreters, I thought that if we are going to train your friends as interpreters I should use one too, so he could help them.#
The feeling of being left out was gone from Walter.
It was soon after that as the rest of the team arrived, more or less at the same time. After that Artemis introduced Hermes they all started walking inside.
#So how are we going to do this?# Cabe signed #Who talks and who sign.#
#We start with pairing up,# Artemis said and Hermes talked at the same time translating what his cousin signed.
In the end the pair was:
Sly and Cabe
Happy and Toby
And Paige with Ralph
Walter would be using Hermes as would Artemis
#Everyone happy?"# Artemis asked and Hermes translated
The Scorpion team nodded.
#Okay this is the way we will do this, we will shop one of you will be deaf and the other will interpret for you after lunch we will see what we want to do, you can switch after a while if you want so everyone get a turn that want a turn, well beside me and Walter. Is this okay with everyone?# Artemis told them with Hermes translated
Again they all nodded and so they group started their shopping, as a group at first so that Artemis could help them.
#So where to first?# She asked
#Well Ralph need some new pants,# Paige said
Artemis nodded and the group walked to the children's clothes store, before going in she ask if they had decided who would be signing and who would interpret, they nodded and Happy held her hand up with Ralph doing the same they wanted to be signing first. Sly was the last to be signing.
They walked in to buy pants for young Ralph.
A few hours later the group sat down to eat at the food court, the day had been eventful to say the least.
#So,# Artemis sign as she sat down at the long table #What have you learn this far?#
#People are morons,# Happy sign angry and took a bite out of the hamburger she had got.
Artemis nodded.
#Some were really mean,# Ralph signed looking down at the kids meal he had got with cheese burgers and fries,
#Most ignore us,# Sly signed taking a forkful of his food #I asked a woman for help and it was like she didn't see me only Cabe, it was weird.#
#And very rude,# Cabe pointed out
Artemis nodded as she slowly eat her food.
#You sort of get used to it,# She signed
#We shouldn't have to get used to it,# Walter pointed out
Artemis agreed with him on that.
They eat in silence until something landed on the table splattering the whole group in ketchup and other condiments mixed with breadcrumbs and wet napkins, from a table closed by they could both see and hear a group of teenagers laughing at them yelling rude words to them thinking that they couldn't understand them.
"Let me kick their little asses!" Happy screamed and jumped up the only thing that stopped her was that Cabe had grabbed her arm stopping her.
"Let them be," he said "I will deal with it."
He got up but as the teens had heard Happy yell at them and they got that the group that was waving their hands around could actually hear them they run off waving their own hand in rude ways laughing.
After having finished eating and talking about it they decided to split up and go around on their own, it was okay if they didn't want to pretend to be deaf anymore.
#Walter do you want to go with me and Ralph?# Paige asked
#No sorry Artemis wanted my help with something,# Walter answered #Maybe later or you can come with us. If that is okay with Artemis.#
Artemis who had been talking with Hermes about something that the others couldn't see but it looked like they were arguing as the signs was short and choppy.
Walter tapped Artemis lightly on the shoulder to get her attention, she turned around and for just a second she looked like she wanted to hit someone.
#What is it? Ready to get going?# she asked
Walter nodded before he told her that both Paige and Ralph wanted to come with them and if that was okay with her.
Artemis nodded that it was okay with her too.
#So what do we do now?# Paige asked
#I need to buy a present so let's find something,# Artemis signed
And the small group walked around the mall to find something whatever something was.
#Who is the present for?# Ralph asked
#My cousin birthday is next week,# was Artemis answer
#Hermes?# Paige asked
Artemis shook her head and smiled, no it was no Hermes, she told them, it was another cousin who was very interested in dolphins so she was looking for something with just a dolphin on it.
First they went to a small but nice knick-knack store to see if they had something with a dolphin.
#Excuse me,# Artemis signed and tap on the disk to get the employee's attention
The teen girl looked up but when she saw Artemis signing she looked down and ignored her totally.
#Excuse me# Artemis signed again and tap the disk a bit harder this time with Hermes translating for her, the teen looked up again sighed annoyed
"Yes," she said "What do you want?"
#I am looking for anything with dolphins,# Artemis sign with once again Hermes translating #Do you have anything with dolphins?#
"Could you please stop waving your hands around," the girl said "it is like totally annoying, why don't you talk like a normal person."
Hermes looked like he wanted to strangled the girl, but he signed what the girl said to his cousin who looked annoyed.
Paige looked mad as hell.
"Hey you can't talk like that," she said "She is deaf, she talks with her hands, show some respect."
The girl looked like she was an alien before she returned to reading her gossip magazine again ignoring all of them once more.
#Well let's go,# Artemis sign and walked out of the store with the rest after her.
#You are really going to let her treat you like that?# Paige asked still fuming
Artemis looked at her with a dumbfounded look.
#Of course not,# she sign #I just saw that there were no dolphins in there so no point at staying. And thanks Paige for trying to help.#
Hermes gave Artemis a note she read it and smile at it but didn't say anything more just place the note in her pocket.
The next store was a t-shirt store where you could design your own shirt.
#Okay let's see if this is better,# Artemis sign
It was they soon had two t-shirts with dolphins on them, Ralph got a few new funny shirts too.
"Why did you sign what that rude girl said?" Paige asked Hermes as they walked to the next store
"Because I am her interpreter today," was the answer she got "plus she can read lips so she know that the girl said something and would see if I tried to sign anything different to her."
Paige could still not really understand it but she nodded.
"It goes both way," Hermes said "Sometime Arty is the one saying rude things, if she get irritated she can be quite rude too. And it is our jobs as interpreters to translate that too."
"But wouldn't it be better if we sort of left out the rude stuff?" Paige asked thinking of all the time Walter had been rude before his deafness.
"We could but we really shouldn't," Hermes said "It is a bit like taking their opinion from them like we are saying what they sign and feel isn't important enough to be heard or that they should be protected from rude things. The world don't work that way."
Paige could see his point in that, but she was still not sure if she agree with all of it.
"Talk to the one you are interpreted for," he said "so that you are on the same lines, with Arty and me, she want me to translate everything if she don't say otherwise and the same back around."
Paige nodded.
Walter tapped Artemis on the shoulder.
#Why did you just leave?# he asked he know he would have berated the stupid girl if it had been him
#The note that Hermes gave me, was her name,# Artemis signed #I will be contacting the owner of the store and tell them about it, to be rude back wouldn't have help me.#
#But don't that make you mad?# He asked
Artemis looked Walter in the face and what he saw was not only anger but also sadness.
#It make me very mad,# She told him #But it is not the first time nor will it be the last time this will happened to me or you.#
Walter got the urge to he didn't know hug her but the feeling was gone again as fast as it had struck him.
"Mum I want an ice cream," Ralph said
They had been walking around the mall for a while now, just looking at stores practicing signing with varying results.
Paige turn and ask the rest of the small group if they too wanted Ice cream they did, so on the way to ice cream they went.
#Wait# Artemis signed and waved her arms to get their attention #Is it okay if we just look in the bookstore I think they have a book I have been looking for.#
The other nodded and followed her into the bookstore there they split up to look around Walter kept closed to Artemis and Hermes.
Artemis looked around and when she couldn't find the book she gently tapped a woman who worked at the store.
#Excuse me,# She signed while Hermes translated #Do you have the latest book of James Ponti?#
#And do you have something by Jemma Hatt, my sister likes her books?# Walter asked and Hermes translated for him too.
The woman made a cooing noise when she understood that Artemis and Walter was deaf.
"Oh you are so brave to be out in the world," she cooed "And you have your little friends with you too."
"Excuse me," Hermes said "My cousin asked for the latest book by James Ponti, do you have it or not?"
"Oh we do have it but I don't know if is something so someone like her," the woman said "I think we have a nice picture book."
She turned to Artemis and Walter smiling big at them.
"I…think…we…have…some…nice…picture…books…for…you…two," she said in a loud and slow patronising way before turning to Hermes, Paige and Ralph "They don't understand any better, the poor mites. It is so nice to see people like you taking care of them, must be hard too, grownups that has the mind of babies. I could never do it. Come so can I show you the picture books, but please see to it that they don't drool on them."
Paige looked at the woman and didn't know if she should laugh at her or yell at her, in the corner of her eye she saw Artemis looking angrier then she had ever seen the deaf girl before if look could kill the stupid bookstore woman would be dead many times over.
#You stupid patronizing moronic witch,# Artemis sign angrily and Hermes with a smug smile translated #We deaf not some over grown babies, I have a doctorate in History!#
After the last angry sign Artemis just turn and stomped out of the store with Walter closed behind leaving Hermes, Paige and Ralph to deal with the idiotic woman as they still have a few things to make clear with her and then talk to her manager.
Walter hurried after Artemis, it took a while before he was beside her as she walked fast, and if it had been possible steam would have come out of her ears so mad was she.
Walter grabbed her wrist to stop her as they was nearly on the other side of the mall where stores was not yet open and nearly no one was around them.
#What happened?# He asked #I couldn't understand what she said, my lip reading is not good enough yet, and Hermes didn't sign it…#
He stopped as he saw Artemis face gone were the anger instead she look so sad and on the verge of crying, without really knowing it Walter wrapped his arms around his friend and hug her tightly, Artemis wrapped her arms around Walter and tears started running down her face.
They stood like that for some time, until the tears stopped.
#Sorry,# Artemis sign blushing bright red
#Nothing to be sorry about,# Walter signed a bit
#She called us grownup babies,# She told him #I hate when they act like we are stupid just because we can't hear.#
Walter nodded he got it.
#I know it is irritating,# Walter sign #Maybe we should get back to the others.#
Artemis nodded she looked at her phone and saw that Hermes had text her that they were at the ice cream place and asking where they were, she texted back that they were on their way back and they slowly walked, just before they were at the ice cream Artemis stopped Walter.
#Thank you,# she sign
Walter just smiled and sign that she was welcome and it was what friends were for.
They walked into the ice cream place and saw that everyone sans them was their waiting for them.
Hermes rushed over and started in rapped signs check if Artemis was okay which she was.
So they all sat down.
#What flavours do we want?# Artemis asked
#Strawberry and chocolate# Happy sign
#Rom raisin and whisky toffee;# come from Cabe
#Mint chocolate two scoops,# Toby sign
#Strawberry and lemon shortcake# Hermes wanted
#Chocolate orange two scoops# come from Paige
#Super fun guy fun cream two scoops# Sly sign #It is a new flavour#
#Cookies and cream and chocolate chip# Artemis sign
#Toffee and vanilla,# Walter sign
Artemis had wrote everything down and with Hermes she went up to order
Soon were the cousins back with two trays of ice creams bowls.
The table was soon talking about everything and nothing soon laugh could be heard and the book store incident was soon more or less forgotten, Hermes did tell Artemis and Walter that they had talked to the owner of the store and they two now had a big discount waiting for them and a big apology too, the owner had been mortified when she had heard what had happened and had fired the woman for it.
So the day ended on a happy note.
A/N:So that was the latest chapter I hope you all like it.
Still not sure if my faves and reviews work I hope so just a heads up.