Chapter One
Discovery at the Park

Jason frowned as he unlocked his dorm room. Inside was the unfortunately familiar sight of the neat small tiled floor, with two single beds set up on each side. There was a corresponding desk for each bed, a small dresser with three drawers each, as well as a large closet was tucked away in the far corner of the room. The small window, blinds down and undamaged as usual, was on the far wall.

The only indications that people actually lived the dorm room were the personal items on the desks and dressers, and that even before he had come into the room, each of the beds' coverings contained tiny rumples where the covers were not completely straight.

Jason pocketed his key and placed his suitcase on the bed closest to the door. He and the suitcase had just been in Brooklyn, where his family, which included his younger brother and parents, had lived since about a month after the new school year. He had some small pictures on both his desk and dresser and a small photo album in the closet, and he frequently wrote to and received letters from his younger brother, Rob, and his mother, especially the former. However, the only times that he actually saw his family was usually every summer, Christmas, maybe spring break, and possibly some scattered other mini-visits here and there.

Jason clenched his right fist slightly. It was not fair, really. He was deaf, yes, and so it was sort of nice for him to have been to this deaf boarding school instead of being taught by random, hastily found tutors after each time his family had moved to a new air force military base. That definitely did not mean he had wanted to stay here clear until college.

He and Rob had tried to convince their parents to let Jason finally stay. After all, the Baker family was finally in a permanent home since his father had retired as a Colonel. Also, he only had the rest of tenth grade, and then two years after that. He wanted to live with his family, instead of just visit them sometimes. Surely, at age sixteen, he was old enough to do that now.

He quickly unpacked his suitcase, which took less than five minutes. After shoving the empty case in its usual place at the bottom of the closet, he frowned and flopped onto his bed.

"Why?" he signed angrily to himself, moving his right hand forcefully downward from his head.

His father, his high-ranking colonel father did not appreciate him since he was deaf, and never had. Even his mother did not like him enough to at the very least argue more with his father to keep him home.

And Rob . . .

Jason anxiously remembered his younger brother's devastated face when he had last told him the lack of response from both of their parents. He also definitely wanted Jason to stay home for good . . .

Jason lay on his bed for a long while. Generally, he might look for Justin, his best friend here that was also his single roommate, or greet Jiyo, his "Padawan" that he was helping to adjust to staying away from home. He also might see Darren, Justin's student from the same helper program. He really did not feel like cheerfully greeting the two younger kids at the moment though, to say the least.

Maybe Rob was rather sullenly helping clean the small house currently. He had seen his mother mention that to Rob, but she had not wanted to do the chore when Jason was visiting.

He looked up briefly again at the uniform room. Even just cleaning the house all day long would be a lot more fun than having to stay here. He would be with Rob, and could have races to see who could dust the room more quickly, but still thoroughly, at the same time. He could tell random jokes about places in the house, stating that they led to various places in the Star Wars world . . .

Jason felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up, blinking sleepily. Apparently he had fallen asleep without realizing it.

Looking at him was his roommate, also a brunette, although Justin's hair was not quite as dark. "Are you okay?" Justin signed worriedly.

Jason sat up, sliding his feet, which still had shoes on them, off of the narrow bed. He shrugged, frowning some.

"I'm never going to be allowed to stay home," he signed back sullenly, not bothering to force any cheerfulness as he would for Jiyo and Darren instead of openly showing that he was upset.

"Really?" Justin asked, his face questioning. Obviously his friend did not believe him fully.

Jason nodded somberly. "Really," he repeated sullenly. He would always be here for most of the time, always only a visitor to his own family.

Justin was looking concerned. Jason had told him about his father's dislike of him, so he understood about that. It was definitely different with his roommate about staying home, though. Justin knew that he might be staying here at the boarding school for at least another year, but he had told him that he really did not mind that much. He had family, like Jason did, including some siblings, but did not have the yearnings Jason did to be with them. He still understood about Jason wanting to go home, though.

His roommate lifted up his hands again. "Maybe you can try asking again soon," Justin suggested.

Jason shrugged helplessly. "Maybe," he replied doubtfully. "I'll probably not get a positive answer. It's always just 'maybe', or 'not yet', over and over." He frowned. "I'll be a faker, telling Jiyo how nice it is to stay here."

"Maybe you can remind him he still needs to learn more things before staying home again," Justin signed. "Then he can show them to his family."

Jason nodded, still not quite sure how he would get his young Padawan to believe something that he no longer thought applied to himself. "Maybe."

"Maybe you can see the new Star Wars toy that Jiyo got," Justin suggested. "He's been wanting to show it to you."

Jason nodded again. He knew that his friend was trying to distract him from his loneliness, as well as see Jiyo at the same time. Justin was right, though. He should not ignore the younger student.

"Do you know where he is?" he asked, straightening some.

His roommate shrugged a little bit. "I saw him with some of his friends earlier on the playground nearby this morning before class," Justin relayed. "Maybe he's in one of the recreation rooms."

"If he's not stuck somewhere," Jason added worriedly, as he frowned a bit. "Or in some other trouble."

"I hope not, "Justin replied. His roommate knew, as well as Jason, of his Padawan's sheer aptitude for accidentally getting into trouble a lot.

He stood and stretched a little bit. Justin grinned at him. Jason tried to smile back, but it was rather hard.

They walked together toward the nearest recreation room on the floor below them. Unfortunately, neither Jiyo nor Darren was in it. Jason went to one of the smaller boys in Jiyo's grade and quickly tapped him on the shoulder. The dark-skinned boy turned around.

"Have you seen Jiyo?" Jason asked, using his Padawan's name sign.

The boy shook his head, and went back to playing with some toy cars. They went out of the room and checked in Jiyo's, then Darren's dorm room, then another recreation room further down in the building. They got permission to look outside at the park nearby, but none of the deaf kids there was the Japanese boy.

"Hide-and-seek," Justin signed jokingly.

Jason smiled back as they passed by the music room. Jiyo had found a secret passage in there one time. He wanted to look in other possible places first before searching any hidden passages in the school, though.

They looked in more rooms, including the cafeteria where some younger kids were having a snack. Luckily for them, a teenage girl came running out of a supply room a few minutes later, her face a bit panicked.

"Is there a janitor nearby?" she asked them. Neither of them knew.

"What happened?" Jason asked.

The girl frowned, still looking worried. "Two shelves fell down on a kid, and the things on the shelves also," she replied.

Jason had a sneaking suspicion who the kid was. "We can help the kid while you get the janitor," he signed, indicating him and Justin.

The girl nodded and thanked them, then left running down the hall. He and Justin went through the open doorway. There was indeed a mess of a couple shelves and scattered various supplies in front of the small closet in the back of the room. A film of colored chalk dust covered the jumbled pile, including the small figure sitting in the middle of it, and not surprisingly, the hair on the person that was not coated in light hues of white, green, blue, and yellow, was jet-black.

Jiyo's almond eyes widened when he saw them, and his face broke out into a large grin. "Hi!" he waved excitedly.

He stood up, part of a shelf falling of him, and tried to come toward them, but then tripped over what looked like a dust-covered paint can and the other shelf.

"Stay there," Jason signed.

Jiyo nodded as he and Justin came toward, and the eight-year-old awkwardly stood, trying to balance by the board and various cans and small boxes around him. Jason reached out a hand, and led the Padawan over the dusty mess. Jiyo shook his powdered head, rubbing his face slightly. His right hand now had a large blue and yellow smudge on it.

A strong hand tapped Jason on his right shoulder, and he turned around to see a uniformed man that had to be one of the day janitors.

"Are you all okay?" he asked. He spoke instead of signing, as it was not required for the janitors to know sign language, for whatever strange reason.

Jason interpreted for Jiyo, as he could not yet read lips very well. They nodded, and the janitor's eyes creased together.

"Can any of you talk?" he asked, putting one hand on a hip. Jason translated again.

Jiyo shook his head, though that was actually untrue. His young Padawan could talk some, but was generally quite shy about it near hearing people. However, Jiyo was a whole lot better than himself. Jason hesitated a tiny bit, then put out his hand in a "so-so" motion. Justin lifted up one hand and put his thumb and pointer finger close together in a gesture that even hearing people knew meant "only a little bit."

The janitor raised an eyebrow and let his arm fall back to his side. He shook his head slightly and looked off a bit to the side, but not so much that Jason could not still see what he said.

"Of course, I apply for a janitorial position at a deaf school, where even some of the older kids can't talk and I manage to come across three at the same time that are practically mute," he said to himself. He then turned his head fully around again and cringed a bit at Jason signing the rest of the sentence. "And of course, you translated that too, right?"

Jason nodded (he may as well as well say that he had). The janitor grinned a bit.

"Well, I certainly deserved that one," he said, his face rueful. He then straightened. "Well, you can go on and get the kid cleaned up. Looks like he needs it. And I'll clean up this mess in here. Did the shelves just break, or was the kid trying to climb on them- wait, don't try to answer that. Anyone can plainly see that the shelves are not where they're supposed to be, and any good janitor could find out why."

He made shooing motions with one hand. Jason held up his right hand, then quickly dug into his pocket for his small notepad and pen. He wrote a brief "thank you", then showed it to the man.

The janitor shrugged. "Well, you're welcome, I guess," he replied. "Cleaning up messes is what janitors do."

Justin translated the man's reply this time, as Jason was still holding the pad and pen. He could not lip read quite as well as Jason could, but he generally understood what people said.

The janitor shooed them away again. Jason replaced the pad and pen, then went with Jiyo and Justin out of the room. He closed the door behind them.

Jiyo lifted up his hands as they walked toward the nearest bathroom. "I want to help the janitor," he signed.

Jason smiled. "Well, he maybe we can help after you're all cleaned up. Then you could see better."

Jiyo grinned, and they had to chase after him as he suddenly broke into a full on run to the nearest bathroom. Before they could stop him, the smaller boy had turned on the water full blast and dunked his head under it.

Predictably, he came up cringing, holding his eyes. Justin dashed to the closet and nabbed a couple of soft towels, while Jason went to the regular sink towels and grabbed a few. He wet them under the water that was still running and turned it off. He then tapped Jiyo on the arm, then again when his Padawan flinched away, still tightly covering his eyes.

Jiyo finally took his arm away. His face was now utterly streaked with water and watery chalk dust, and Jason gently dabbed around his eyes with the paper towel. After a few more, Jiyo finally opened his eyes and took the towel from Jason and wiped his eyes with it. Justin helped him take the rest off of his face, streaking the light blue towels with various colors.

About half an hour later, after an odd occurrence of the door to the bathroom somehow actually falling off, landing on a sink and causing water to burst from it such as it might from a fire hydrant, Jiyo was rubbing his previously sopping wet face with yet another clean towel. Somehow, his clothes had luckily been spared the water blast, as well as Jason and his roommate. Jiyo handed the wet towel to Jason, who put it into the used towel box with the others ones they had used.

Jiyo smiled. "Better," he signed. His clothes were still streak with color, but at least none was on his face. "Now, can we help the janitor?"

Jason returned the facial gesture, looking at Jiyo's hopeful face. There was no stopping his Padawan sometimes.

He then frowned slightly. "If he's still there," he signed worriedly.

Jiyo suddenly looked rather panicked. "He might be done already?"

The Padawan took off running again, bu Jason easily caught up to him this time. Unfortunately, when they opened the door to the supply room, the mess was cleaned up, including the shelves back on the wall, and the janitor was nowhere in sight.

Jiyo slumped forward some, rather dejected. He looked up moodily. "I wanted to help since I made the mess," he signed sadly.

Jason patted him on the shoulder, not caring that his hand got slightly colored. "Maybe next time," he suggested. Justin nodded his approval.

Jiyo still looked rather disheartened, but soon straightened, his face brightening. "Maybe we can go see my new Star Wars figure I got from home?" he signed excitedly. "It's a See-threepio!"

"Awesome," Jason signed back, meaning it.

Even though he was away from his family, he still liked to see Jiyo so excited about something. It was quite nice that people still did like him here, including Ghostwriter, the ghost that only Rob, Rob's friends, and more recently, Jason could see. Ghostwriter could follow him wherever he went, and could even send messages between him and Rob, even with the distance between them, so he could talk to his younger brother more often than he could otherwise.

They went into the hallway, and Jiyo grinned and pointed to two students. Jason followed his gaze to see a ten-year-old sandy-haired boy signing to another one in his grade, recognizing him as one that he and Justin had introduced him to. Darren stopped his conversation as Jiyo ran right in front of him, greeted the other boy, then pointed at Jason and Justin.

"Jason's back!" he signed.

The other boy waved. Jason and his roommate waved back. Darren then looked at Jason, and he saw the sort of new ten-year-old that was much more serious than Jiyo and less active, but still friendly once one got to know him better.

"Hi," he waved, smiling some, and Jason returned both gestures.

The other boy turned to Darren. "You want to be with them for a while?" he asked. "We could do things later."

Darren must have become much better friends with the boy in the past three days, since he only shrugged instead of making a sullen face.

"Fine," he replied.

The boy nodded and walked off toward the direction of a recreation room.

Jiyo grinned. "Triple J-D is back!" he signed.

Jason nodded. That was their special name for their small group, of course standing for the three of them whose names started J, and then D for Darren. Jason had randomly thought of it one day, and the name had stuck. He then felt a strong, wistful longing for Rob again, even though he was with his group. Jason tried to shove it away, somewhat successfully. He could not let the two younger kids down.

Meanwhile, Darren was looking Jiyo over, his clothes still wet and streaked with color. He raised his eyebrows.

"What happened this time?" he asked.

Jiyo looked a little rueful. "Well, I was in a supply room over there . . ."

Jason carefully looked over the short bushes in front of them. He motioned Jiyo over, who was holding a small stick as a pretend light saber.

"I sense dark Jedi over there," he signed, pointing.

Jiyo nodded. "How many?" he replied.

"Three."

"Can I smack them?"

Jason grinned. "Not until the others are found," he responded. "We don't want them to reveal that we're here."

Jiyo nodded. Of course, Darren and Justin were the other Jedi with them, searching for dark Jedi traitors. They were currently on a planet for a special mission of catching them and others that were trying to overrun a Jedi base.

He spotted Justin about three feet away, showing Darren something that was probably evidence from the dark Jedi. He waved to him, to get his attention.

Justin turned around, and put down the rock. "It's a meteorite with a dark force on it," he replied.

"Recent?"

His roommate nodded. Darren actually grinned some, getting into the game.

"I sense it from . . . over there!" he signed, pointing to the swings.

Jason nodded. "We could take them in individual groups, or force them together, and then fight them," he stated.

"We could raise a force field," Darren suggested. "One that dark Jedi can't sense."

Jason shook his head. "That would use too much energy," he signed back.

"We could do one group, and then the other," Jiyo suggested.

Jason, Justin, and even Darren nodded. Jiyo bounced upward some, eager to fight.

"Let's go!" he signed excitedly.

They snuck into the base, carefully crossed the roped area between platforms, and crept behind some of the gears controlling part of the base. Darren carefully lowered himself to the telescope, with Jiyo following. He watched them maneuver it skillfully toward the swings, then place it back where it was before they had used it.

"It's fine to attack?" Jason asked them once they had come back up.

Darren nodded. Jiyo took the stick light saber he had stuck in his belt, and Jason and his roommate followed them toward the unwary villains nearby.

They then stuck, all with the superior skills of the good side of the Force. The second group was even easier. Jason whopped two with the Force, then let Jiyo finish them off. The dark Jedi all soon surrendered, and they sent them all to a special type of prison cell that they could not escape from.

Jiyo put the teleporter for the base back in its place, hidden under a large rock by two trees. He pushed a "button", and it resealed itself into the rock, hidden from anyone that did not know about it.

"We did it!" he cheered, pumping one fist into the air.

Jason grinned and nodded. They soon had a race to the platform with the glider. There were not even any people on it, as more seemed interested in the two tire swings on the other side of the playground.

They were almost there, when Jiyo suddenly tripped over something on the ground and banged into two smaller boys that were passing nearby them. All three tumbled hard onto the ground. Jason dashed toward them, and helped his Padawan up.

The smaller of the two young boys was perhaps about two years old, and scrunched up his face and opened his mouth. He was probably crying, though of course Jason could not hear it.

A woman that could be the boys' mother came rushing toward them, picking up the youngest one and rocked him on her hip.

"It's fine. It's fine," she cooed, rubbing his head with her free hand.

The boy closed his mouth and leaned his head against his mother's shoulder. The older one, who was about four-years-old, patted his mother on the elbow.

Jason felt a tap on his arm. "Are they okay?" Jiyo asked him.

"I think so," he replied.

He looked up to see the four-year-old and the mother looking at them in astonishment. Her face then turned into a scowl.

"You should look where you're going!" she snapped at them.

She then grabbed her older son's hand. Her head was turned a little bit, but Jason could still see enough of her mouth.

"Stupid deaf people," she spat. The mother then pulled on her four-year-old and led him away from them.

Jiyo looked at him. "What did she say?" he asked. Darren was also looking at him, waiting for an answer.

Jason tried to shrug nonchalantly. "She wasn't happy that someone knocked her sons down, but at least they're both fine," he replied. He tried to smile. "Maybe she was just tired."

Jiyo nodded, thankfully satisfied with the answer. "My mom can get that way," he signed. "She was so mad when Daichi and I spilled the milk all over the floor, and that was after I knocked over the syrup and Daichi broke the mug on the windowsill."

Thankfully, Darren was also looking at least mostly content with Jason's answer. Jiyo then was about to run over to the glider again, when his foot caught on something- again- and he tripped. Thankfully his knees were only covered slightly in dirt where he had fallen, from where the woodchips and been moved around so much that the earth below them shown.

Jiyo was about to pick himself up, when he stopped. His Padawan's eyebrows creased slightly, and he swiped one finger against something on the ground.

Jason knelt by him. "What is that?" he asked.

Jiyo shrugged and swiped at the thing some more. It seemed to be a green piece of material, and Jiyo tugged at it hard. Without much effort, he pulled it upward. To Jason's surprise, it was a small dirt-encrusted green bag, with pull strings holding it closed.

Darren leaned closer. "What's inside?" he asked.

Jason shrugged, intrigued. It could be someone's rock collection that they had lost at one point, some collector's pennies, special light sabers that grew once Jedi held them . . .

Jiyo dropped the bag, trying to open it, but Justin picked it up and handed to him. The Padawan finally managed to tug the knot apart. He opened the bag, and grinned a bit.

"Marbles," he finger spelled with his left hand.

Darren pointed to a something near the bottom of the bag. Jason looked closer at it to see the fading lettering, "Adrian Kimber- Happy Birthday! December 29, 1962."

Jiyo lifted up the bag too peer at the pale wording. "Wow," he signed. "That's really old."

Darren shrugged. "Maybe the bag is old, but the marbles are new?" he suggested.

Jiyo shrugged, and pulled one out. The colored glass was covered with dust, with a few dirt spots. Jiyo made a face, then put it back in the bag. The next several were all the same way.

"Not new," he signed, awkwardly signing the last word with his left hand sliding against his right hand that still held the bag.

He then grinned. "Can we keep them?" he asked.

Jason shrugged. "Maybe we could ask the person at the small police station nearby if someone reported any marbles lately."

Jiyo looked a little put out, but nodded. The four of them went to the station, which was a small one that was only a few blocks from the playground. He knew that the guard there was quite nice and was one of the few there that actually knew some sign language. Most of the guards there would not even mind a small group of deaf kids coming in.

Thankfully, it was one that they knew was nice, and after a cheerful wave, Jason asked for paper and was soon given a piece from the nearby copy machine. Jason and Justin watched carefully as Jiyo wrote down the request- he still did not quite have a solid grasp with English- and after a few corrections, Jiyo handed the paper to the officer that the guard called over.

The man, also luckily one that was friendly, looked it over. "Marbles, huh?" he asked, while Jason translated again, this time also for Darren.

He stroked his chin with his free hand. "I don't know of any recent requests for lost marbles," he said thoughtfully. Jiyo looked hopeful, even as the officer held out a hand for the bag and looked at several of them, like they had.

The officer then dropped a dusty marble with a barely visible lime green center back into the sack. "I think if anyone would have been looking for them, it would have been quite a while ago, so I think it's all right if you take them," he said kindly.

He handed the bag back to Jiyo, who was grinning widely. The younger boy then pumped up his arm. Jason flinched as dozens of marbles soared out of the still open top, rolling under the desk and all over the floor.

"Sorry," Jiyo signed, frowning some at the mess.

"It's fine," he signed back. He looked back at the officer.

Thankfully, the man just smiled. "Well, you can certainly keep them after you clean them all up," he said. "I'll just help a few of the people over there who are having a bit of trouble."

He shook his head slightly and carefully stepped over some marbles on the floor nearby. Jason turned around to see a few sullen people on the wooden flooring, looking rather disdained in Jiyo's direction. Apparently they had somehow tripped after the marbles had come out of the bag, but at least no one was mad about anyone being deaf this time.

Jason turned back around and knelt down to help pick up the spilled marbles. It was neat that Jiyo had found a buried treasure of sorts, and he was looking forward to playing with the marbles with him, as well as Justin and Darren. All the same, though, he wished that Rob was here to see it.