"Talking"

¤Writing¤

#signing#

Chapter 5

Walter looked around in the smallish classroom where ten or so other people was sitting around, some was writing in notebooks other was signing and some was reading something.

To be honest Walter felt so alone at that moment even though he know that his friends was just two doors down from him in their own classroom. He just stood there not really knowing what to do.

Someone touched his shoulder and made him jump, there behind him stood an older grandfather looking man smiling, he started to sign something but stopped when he saw the nametag that Walter had on his shirt, it said ¤Walter O´Brien, New¤

The Grandfather man picked up a notepad.

¤Hello Walter¤ he wrote ¤I am one of the teachers here Benjamin, nice to meet you, you may sit down wherever you like and we will start soon¤

Walter nodded and sat down and pulled up his notebook and a few pens.

After a few more minutes and a few more people arriving and sitting down, Benjamin started by writing on his iPad that was linked to the smart screen, he wrote up what they were doing that day when the door open and a young woman a few years younger than Walter rushed in, she signed a quick sorry to Benjamin, who just smiled and pointed at Walter's table which was the only one that had a place for her to sit at.

Walter watch the girl as she sat down on the other side of the table, she just like everyone else had a nametag and on her it stood ¤Artemis T.A¤

Artemis looked at Walter and smiled at him.

¤Hello Walter as you can see I am Artemis and I am also one of the few Teacher's assistant, nice to meet you. ¤ Artemis wrote on the notepad that was on the table

Walter smiled back a bit.

¤Hello Artemis, I am new to this.¤

Benjamin had started to tell the class what they were all learning today, and that the few that was new was learning the alphabets and that was all for that lesson.

Walter looked at the picture of the hands that showed the letters and then looked around and saw the three or four others that were new slowly trying to make the shape of the letters with their hands, and felt a bit annoyed this would take forever, not learning the abc that would be easy but everyone else was so slowly and if it was like in his childhood school they would not get on to anything new until EVERYONE was ready.

Artemis must have seen the annoyance in his face because she waved her hand in front of his face so that she got his attention.

Walter looked up.

¤What the matter?¤ Artemis wrote

¤I want no need to learn to sign fast and this¤ Walter waved around ¤Is not fast it is so slow!¤

Artemis nodded.

¤Okay, I will help you, first learn the alphabet so that you can sign it in your sleep, then I will give you more to learn. Okay?¤

Walter nodded he had thought that Artemis like so many other would tell him to just have patience and that everything took it's time and all that bull.

Artemis then left Walter to study and learn the alphabet, she walked around helping the other students some needed more help than others.

Soon the lesson was over and Artemis returned to Walter.

¤Okay, tomorrow I will test you and if you are ready we will move forward if not you will have one more day to study, is that okay for you?¤ she wrote

Walter nodded he would be ready tomorrow, he packed up his few things and walked out to meet up his friends to see how their lesson had been, he wondered if they had the same problem as he had or if they would move faster than his class or slower?

Walter was just about to wave goodbye to Artemis when she walked up beside him.

¤I am going the same way if you are going to the hearing people classroom¤ she wrote on her phone

Walter nodded and they walked the few feet to the other classroom where Artemis waved a goodbye to Walter and disappeared down the hall.

Paige was the first to walk out right after her was Happy who did not look happy at all, Toby and Cabe was talking about something which Walter could not hear and for the million time it hit him that he would most likely never hear his friends voices again, he shook his head to clear those thoughts away. Sly was the last one to walk out having picked up extra paper to give to Megan.

They gang walked the car.

"I don't get why," Happy grumbled when they had sat down in the car "I mean we are genius why can't we move faster! It is stupid and that we only have lessons every other day that is just as stupid, I mean Walt has it every day!"

"I agree," Paige said "And Ralph only has it once a week because he is a child, I am not looking forward to telling him that."

Walter who was sitting at the window seat just looked out.

Back at the garage was Ralph and Drew waiting, Ralph had wanted to come but couldn't because they didn't know if children was allowed to take the class or if there were a child class for them.

"How was it? The young boy asked before the team had come inside the door of the garage "Can I come next time?"

Paige sighed before she put up a smile.

"Sorry Ralphie I asked and they said that there are an age limit and you have to be at least 18 to join the class," she said and saw how her son's face drop, "But there are a child class every Saturday for an hour so I sign you up for it."

"Okay thanks mum and you all will help me," he said and the other nodded, Walter nodded too when he saw what Sly had wrote on his phone.

Cabe and Toby went out to fetch some pizza and sodas while Paige and Drew with some help from Ralph made the table, Happy who was still annoyed had stomped over to her latest motor she was fixing, Sly was reading his comic book leaving Walter sitting down running over again and again the alphabet so that he would know it till the next day.

Walter nearly jumped out of his chair when someone tapped him on his shoulder, he looked up and saw that it was Toby grinning down at him.

¤So how did you lesson go?¤ he wrote

¤Good, a bit slow at first but the T.A promise to help me learn faster¤ Walter wrote back ¤How did your lesson go? I notice that Happy was not happy.¤

Toby nodded.

¤Well we went through the alphabet and then that was pretty much it, the rest of the lesson was just us trying to learn it, and when we ask when we will go on to next part we were told that next part was not until next month. So not overly fast learning.¤

Walter nodded and he had a feeling that his class was just a bit faster than his friends' class was.

¤I will show you everything so you can learn with me¤ he wrote

Toby tried to not look too surprise had Walter just agree to help them learn faster then again if he didn't he would not have anyone to talk to for god know how long.

¤Food is ready by the way¤ Toby then wrote and pointed at the table that was set, Walter nodded and together the two walked over and sat down.

Cabe looked at Walter and when he got eye contact with him he smiled.

#W-A-L-T W-H-A-T P-I-Z-Z-A D-O Y-O-U W-A-N-T?# he slowly spelled in sign language

Walter took a few second to understand what Cabe had sign and smiled back at him.

#I W-A-N-T P-E-P-P-E-R-O-N-I.# He slowly signed back

Cabe gave a slice to the young man.

#C-A-N I H-A-V-E S-O-M-E F-A-N-T-A?# Signed Toby

Happy throw a can of Fanta to him and hit him in the forehead.

Drew was the one that had not signed up to learn and was now more or less left out of the "talk" but he didn't mind overly much for the moment.

#M-U-M C-A-N I H-A-V-E N-O-R-E P-I-Z-A? signed Ralph getting it a bit wrong

"Nore pizza?" Paige said "I don't know can you have nore pizza?"

Ralph laughed at the misspelling.

He was not the only one to misspell a word or two that evening and everyone just laughed at it in good humour.

The end of this chapter

A/N:

I do not know much signs in the ASL as I am not from America, I will try and do my best and if I am unsure of something I will ask and read up. I have and I am still learning sign language but it is not ASL. So I have some understanding of it.

So what do you think?