Chapter 10

The Return of Perky

The next day found House once again staring at the front of a high school. Somehow Wilson had found out where he was going, and had given him a hard time about it earlier that morning. House had to grin a little as he remembered the conversation. Wilson certainly could hold his own when it came to smart ass remarks. Today it had been "What, back in High School and still not getting any?" After receiving a glare that could melt steel, Wilson had retreated, leaving House to come up with some excuse to give to Cameron, Foreman, and Chase. He didn't think they bought it, but he also didn't really care.

Looking at the school, he had to note what a difference a few days could make. When he had entered the building on Saturday it has seemed almost spooky with the loneliness it exuded. Now it was anything but spooky. It was bustling with students hurrying to get to homeroom on time, and House felt even more out of place among all the active bodies. He found the office easily enough, and approached the desk slowly, wanting to prolong the inevitable. He knew that he would have to enter the mass of students filling the halls sooner or later, but if it was all the same he preferred later. A tall redhead was standing behind the desk, and gave him a small smile as he approached.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Um, yeah, I'm Dr. House. I'm here to see…" he had to think a second before "perky's" name came to mind, "Erin Cale."

"Oh, sure, just fill out this sheet, and grab a visitor's sticker. Do you know where to go?" The red head asked.

"Is it the same place that the SEE lessons are held?"

"Yep. Do you want someone to escort you?" she asked looking around, presumably for a student aid.

"No, I think I can manage things." With that he took one of the annoyingly red stickers, and placed it on his bag. As he entered the large open area in front of the office, he could see that this part of the building was much newer than the part where he had been the other day. He saw one of the SEE signs hanging halfway off the wall, and quickly oriented himself. As he limped down the hall he saw all the strange looks that the kids were giving him, but surprisingly they weren't of pity, and most kids weren't looking at his limp or cane, but the fact that he was a strange adult entering their domain. He pondered this until he almost ran into a dark haired girl in a power wheelchair.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He stuttered, and moved aside.

"It's ok." She replied. Her speech was slow, and a little hard to understand, and as House made a cursory glance at her hands and her jerky motions he assumed that she suffered from cerebral palsy. She smiled at him and continued on her way.

In the short time that it took him to find the hallway that led by the library, he saw two other students in wheelchairs, and another group wildly signing to each other. 'What is this place? A special education school?' he thought, but while there were a lot of special students, they were still a minority. He stopped at the large doors leading to the library. He was 30 minutes early, and he hadn't been in a high school library in many years. 'It could be interesting.' he thought. He went to enter the library but was met with a fairly large set of steps. Counting them quickly and coming up with 14, he decided that it wasn't worth it. He was about to turn away when a short lady with blond hair waved at him.

"There is another door down further, if you don't want to deal with the stairs," she said. He was about to politely decline when she hurried up the stairs. "Here, I'll show you."

She led the way to a door about halfway down the ramp that he had used the time he was here before. There was a classroom that led to another door, which in turn led into the library. He had to admit, it was a fairly large library, and a huge collection of computers filled the middle area.

"Thanks." He said after a moment.

"Sure thing, and if you need anything else feel free to ask," she said with a smile, and House couldn't help but get the feeling that she was flirting just a little. He turned to the non-fiction section and browsed the science section, pleased to find a large number of advanced texts. 'At least schools are teaching something good now.' he thought. He then took a tour of the fiction section, seeing if there was anything good there. 'Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, The Stranger…' They were mostly books in the curriculum. Getting a little bored, he took another glance at his watch and decided that 15 minutes wasn't too early. Finding the door to the hallway he made his way to the classroom. 'God, I hated high school the first time,' he thought again as he knocked once before opening the door.

As House entered the room, it was as if he had stepped into another world, a world where sound no longer had a place and hands were dancing through the air. He felt horribly out of place. He glanced around quickly and didn't see Erin, and he almost jumped as a voice broke the spell of the room.

"Are you Greg House?" The woman who belonged to the voice asked.

"Yes, I'm here to see, um, Erin," he had to keep himself from stuttering. He hadn't felt this strange since the first day he had walked back into work with his new limp and cane.

"Well Erin is finishing up with an essay, so you can just find a seat and she will be with you in a minute." The woman then turned back to the student she had been talking with, and once more the room was silent. House made his way over to one of the uncomfortable desks and carefully lowered himself into the seat.

A more careful observation of the room revealed three sections. One was obviously a reading area. Tall bookshelves lined three sides, and a huge table was lined with soft looking chairs. Six elementary students and a tall, thin, older girl currently occupied this area. The older girl was reading to the young kids, and even though House didn't understand the signs he found himself watching with rapt attention. The way that the girl signed, it was almost possible to understand what was going on. After another moment she seemed to change. No longer was she the storyteller. She was just another teen chatting with a group of kids. The younger students stood with a loud scraping of chairs. Fingers and hands once again started flying through the air as they lined up to leave. Putting the fist section aside for a moment, House surveyed the second part, and spotted Erin. She was hunched over a keyboard, quickly flicking through a book and typing at breakneck speed. She sat at one of the many computers that lined the wall. House was sitting in the third part of the room, and the only part that looked like a classroom. Erin interrupted his observation of the room.

"Dr. House! Glad you made it," once again her far too happy demeanor began to grate on his nerves. He gave her a small nod, and gave the room a final glance.

"Yeah. So, you said something about a schedule? I do have to get back to work," he replied shortly. He wasn't going to give anything to this kid. He noticed that today Erin was wearing hearing aids, and she smiled at him as he noticed.

"With school, it's just easier," she said as an explanation. "There are too many people talking all the time."

House was about to say something scathing when a loud bell interrupted him. The teacher he had spoken to went over to the door, and flicked the lights. Heads went up all around the room, and after glances at the clock, more then half of the students headed for the door. All the elementary kids lined up inside the room, and within moments they were collected and led off to…wherever.

"Don't worry, I'm here for the next period," Erin said with another smile. "I also talked to my teachers and they said I can leave for 7th period, that's the last period, as long as I can get a note from you. So, whenever works for you works for me."

House thought for a moment about the best way to miss the least amount of interesting TV, and agreed that "7th period" would be a good time for Erin to come and help Kelly. With that figured out, House wanted to get a quick lesson before heading back to the hospital.

"Oh, before I go, can you teach me how to sign colors?" he asked it in a way that made it seem almost unimportant, but Erin was too smart for her own good.

"Colors? That's not something that is usually taught first." She gave him a look that clearly said that she wanted to know more.

"Kelly, she sees people in colors, it's called synesthesia, I figured it would be a good thing to know."

"Sure, it's not a problem, colors are fairly simple if you know your alphabet," she proceeded to show him the various colors.

The signs for blue, green, purple, and yellow made sense. Red was less obvious, a pointer finger on the chin, and gray was even more complicated, hands with fingers splayed were passed over in front of each other.

"Is there a sign for teal?" he asked after he was fairly confidant with the others.

"No, not really, more specific colors are just spelled out," Erin explained.

"Fine, I can do that." He glanced up at the clock, and saw that more time had passed then he realized. "I have to be going. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sure thing! I'll be there at 2:20 at the latest." She smiled and waved as he stalked out of the room. She sighed only after she was sure he was gone. 'What have I gotten myself into?' she wondered as she found her way to her next class.