Silent Heartbeats 3: Jamie's Jubilee
by Maureen
***
Jamie headed over to the station after school, happy to finally be out of 10th grade and officially an upperclassman. Even though it was only the first day of school, he could tell that this was going to be an interesting year. He liked his classes, he liked his teachers, and to his surprise, he was greeted in the hallways like an old friend by people he didn't even know were his friends.
Unlike last year, he had been invited to sit with classmates in class and at lunch. Jeremy was now respected him and no longer forced Jamie to eat alone in classrooms. Life at Bradford was certainly improving.
"Hey Brooke!" he called, dropping his backpack by her computer. She was already engrossed in the machine, filling out electronic paperwork so the hard copies could be filed.
*Hey, Jamie,* she signed, *file those, would you? And the sink in the women's bathroom is leaking.*
The general consensus around Station 32 was that the station would fall apart without Brooke Linear, Jamie Waite and Alex Freeman. Brooke, despite only being a freshman in highschool, was a computer whiz and had been affectionately dubbed 'the queen of paperwork'. Jamie had been an EMT before he became deaf, and now was the handyman for the station, taking care of inventory and fixing anything broken. Alex was offically referred to as "Dr. Freeman" but most people just used his first name, he officially ran the station, but as everyone knew, he wouldn't last a day without Brooke or Jamie. It also helped that Jamie was his foster son.
"Fix this, file that, give mouth to mouth to a dog...." Jamie grumbled good-naturedly, he picked up the stack of papers and deposited them on top of the filing cabinets and grabbing his toolbelt. The filing could wait, going into the girls' bathroom could not.
***
"So...how was high school?" Jamie asked, plopping himself down on the papers Brooke was working on. It was his way of saying 'take a break'.
*Fine, but it's weird not having Val around,* she said.
*I know...it's weird not having Catie around too.*
*Remember Mr. MacDougal?* Brooke asked, refering to one of the so-called 'guidance counselors'.
*Yeah.*
*He's now an assistant principal along with Carlson. He stands on the balcony over the cafeteria with a bullhorn making sure everyone cleans up their trash and trays. We call him The Dark Overlord,* she informed him, snickering.
Jamie could just imagine the 6'4", black exfootball player standing there doing just that. *He never was suited to being a 'counselor', ordering people around in a bizarre manner is much closer to his style.*
*Working hard or hardly working you two?* Alex asked, coming in the small office. Brooke didn't have an office so much as a desk and computer that was slightly partitioned off, and it had taken Alex nearly a year of wrangling with the city to get her that much. "I need the case files from last shift, Brooke."
"Ha and ha," Brooke replied, "Jamie's sitting on the papers you want," she turned to the older man-boy, *Jamie, you're stinking up Alex's papers.*
Jamie stood up properly, creasing the papers as he did so. *Here,* he said, trying vainly to straighten them back out.
*How was school?* Alex asked, accepting the papers.
*Not bad. I think my mechanics class will be fun and my english teacher is new and seems really wild,* a year and a half ago Jamie didn't care about school at all and didn't see the point in it. Now he wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but he did enjoy it much more.
*Just remember, you aren't taking a technical degree, you're going to a four-year college,* Alex reminded him before leaving. Many schools for the deaf focused on teaching their students trades like mechanics and carpentry instead of focusing on sending the kids to college. Alex had learned, talking to other parents that the trades weren't helping the kids and the colleges were, but the schools were slow to change.
***
That night, Jamie logged onto the internet, hoping to see Catie. She had started school that day too. Fortunantly she was online.
ProbEMT: Hey Catie...what's up?
gothrebel: not much. just got back from dinner. the cafeteria isn't
horrible.
ProbEMT: so how are your classes?
gothrebel: not bad, a lot of reading. it's what I get for being a lit major.
ProbEMT: so then you like it?
gothrebel: yeah, there are lots of barbie's here, but I've met a few really
cool people. how's life in kingsport?
ProbEMT: not bad. life goes on without Catie Roth. it's just much calmer.
gothrebel: well, you know I try *buffs nails*
ProbEMT: I gtg, have stuff to do.
gothrebel: yeah - simpsons is on soon. toodles.
Jamie closed the window and opened up yahoo games. Right now they were perfect, addicting and mind-numbing without the cost and brain cell loss of drugs. And he did not want to think at the moment.
All of his conversations with Catie the past week or so had been strained at best, always short and awkward. It made him wonder if they would ever be able to just talk normally like they always had or if it would always be like this.
She really didn't like to talk about college with him and he didn't talk about high school with her because it had to seem so trivial. Jamie sighed.
Jamie had been hoping that some of his friends from school would be in the gaming room, but only a few people were logged in so he logged off and went to bed.
***
Catie logged off the computer and headed to the common room where a big screen TV was about to air the nightly Simpson's. She was loving college, there were so many open minded people and although she lived in a freshman-only dorm full of barbie's she wasn't hating it as much as she had thought. There were still other goths and punks around and she hung with them. And the Simpson's were a uniting factor to all. Unlike in Kingsport, college wasn't nearly as segregated.
But Jamie...Catie couldn't really focus on the show, engrossed in her thoughts. She missed him. His humour, his sparkling eyes. They'd watch the Simpson's together at the station nearly every day. God how she missed him.
She missed everything about him. The trouble they'd get into and riding on his motorcycle. But most importantly, she missed their talks. They'd talk about anything and everything until all hours of the night. Now they had short, awkward instant messages over the internet and it just wasn't the same. Not by a longshot.
Catie sighed and headed back to her room. She wasn't enjoying the Simpson's anymore and she had homework to do.
***
A/N: Mr. MacDougal aka The Dark Overlord (and ruler of MacDougals, the cleanest fast food chain in our imaginations) really was a VP at my school until a few years ago...and he would stand on the balcony over the cafeteria with a bullhorn saying "Table 3, pick up those trays at the end! Table 5, don't forget your trash!" not that we had any clue which table was #3 or #5...he was cool though.
by Maureen
***
Jamie headed over to the station after school, happy to finally be out of 10th grade and officially an upperclassman. Even though it was only the first day of school, he could tell that this was going to be an interesting year. He liked his classes, he liked his teachers, and to his surprise, he was greeted in the hallways like an old friend by people he didn't even know were his friends.
Unlike last year, he had been invited to sit with classmates in class and at lunch. Jeremy was now respected him and no longer forced Jamie to eat alone in classrooms. Life at Bradford was certainly improving.
"Hey Brooke!" he called, dropping his backpack by her computer. She was already engrossed in the machine, filling out electronic paperwork so the hard copies could be filed.
*Hey, Jamie,* she signed, *file those, would you? And the sink in the women's bathroom is leaking.*
The general consensus around Station 32 was that the station would fall apart without Brooke Linear, Jamie Waite and Alex Freeman. Brooke, despite only being a freshman in highschool, was a computer whiz and had been affectionately dubbed 'the queen of paperwork'. Jamie had been an EMT before he became deaf, and now was the handyman for the station, taking care of inventory and fixing anything broken. Alex was offically referred to as "Dr. Freeman" but most people just used his first name, he officially ran the station, but as everyone knew, he wouldn't last a day without Brooke or Jamie. It also helped that Jamie was his foster son.
"Fix this, file that, give mouth to mouth to a dog...." Jamie grumbled good-naturedly, he picked up the stack of papers and deposited them on top of the filing cabinets and grabbing his toolbelt. The filing could wait, going into the girls' bathroom could not.
***
"So...how was high school?" Jamie asked, plopping himself down on the papers Brooke was working on. It was his way of saying 'take a break'.
*Fine, but it's weird not having Val around,* she said.
*I know...it's weird not having Catie around too.*
*Remember Mr. MacDougal?* Brooke asked, refering to one of the so-called 'guidance counselors'.
*Yeah.*
*He's now an assistant principal along with Carlson. He stands on the balcony over the cafeteria with a bullhorn making sure everyone cleans up their trash and trays. We call him The Dark Overlord,* she informed him, snickering.
Jamie could just imagine the 6'4", black exfootball player standing there doing just that. *He never was suited to being a 'counselor', ordering people around in a bizarre manner is much closer to his style.*
*Working hard or hardly working you two?* Alex asked, coming in the small office. Brooke didn't have an office so much as a desk and computer that was slightly partitioned off, and it had taken Alex nearly a year of wrangling with the city to get her that much. "I need the case files from last shift, Brooke."
"Ha and ha," Brooke replied, "Jamie's sitting on the papers you want," she turned to the older man-boy, *Jamie, you're stinking up Alex's papers.*
Jamie stood up properly, creasing the papers as he did so. *Here,* he said, trying vainly to straighten them back out.
*How was school?* Alex asked, accepting the papers.
*Not bad. I think my mechanics class will be fun and my english teacher is new and seems really wild,* a year and a half ago Jamie didn't care about school at all and didn't see the point in it. Now he wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but he did enjoy it much more.
*Just remember, you aren't taking a technical degree, you're going to a four-year college,* Alex reminded him before leaving. Many schools for the deaf focused on teaching their students trades like mechanics and carpentry instead of focusing on sending the kids to college. Alex had learned, talking to other parents that the trades weren't helping the kids and the colleges were, but the schools were slow to change.
***
That night, Jamie logged onto the internet, hoping to see Catie. She had started school that day too. Fortunantly she was online.
ProbEMT: Hey Catie...what's up?
gothrebel: not much. just got back from dinner. the cafeteria isn't
horrible.
ProbEMT: so how are your classes?
gothrebel: not bad, a lot of reading. it's what I get for being a lit major.
ProbEMT: so then you like it?
gothrebel: yeah, there are lots of barbie's here, but I've met a few really
cool people. how's life in kingsport?
ProbEMT: not bad. life goes on without Catie Roth. it's just much calmer.
gothrebel: well, you know I try *buffs nails*
ProbEMT: I gtg, have stuff to do.
gothrebel: yeah - simpsons is on soon. toodles.
Jamie closed the window and opened up yahoo games. Right now they were perfect, addicting and mind-numbing without the cost and brain cell loss of drugs. And he did not want to think at the moment.
All of his conversations with Catie the past week or so had been strained at best, always short and awkward. It made him wonder if they would ever be able to just talk normally like they always had or if it would always be like this.
She really didn't like to talk about college with him and he didn't talk about high school with her because it had to seem so trivial. Jamie sighed.
Jamie had been hoping that some of his friends from school would be in the gaming room, but only a few people were logged in so he logged off and went to bed.
***
Catie logged off the computer and headed to the common room where a big screen TV was about to air the nightly Simpson's. She was loving college, there were so many open minded people and although she lived in a freshman-only dorm full of barbie's she wasn't hating it as much as she had thought. There were still other goths and punks around and she hung with them. And the Simpson's were a uniting factor to all. Unlike in Kingsport, college wasn't nearly as segregated.
But Jamie...Catie couldn't really focus on the show, engrossed in her thoughts. She missed him. His humour, his sparkling eyes. They'd watch the Simpson's together at the station nearly every day. God how she missed him.
She missed everything about him. The trouble they'd get into and riding on his motorcycle. But most importantly, she missed their talks. They'd talk about anything and everything until all hours of the night. Now they had short, awkward instant messages over the internet and it just wasn't the same. Not by a longshot.
Catie sighed and headed back to her room. She wasn't enjoying the Simpson's anymore and she had homework to do.
***
A/N: Mr. MacDougal aka The Dark Overlord (and ruler of MacDougals, the cleanest fast food chain in our imaginations) really was a VP at my school until a few years ago...and he would stand on the balcony over the cafeteria with a bullhorn saying "Table 3, pick up those trays at the end! Table 5, don't forget your trash!" not that we had any clue which table was #3 or #5...he was cool though.