I waited to call Angela until after I had done my grocery shopping. Charlie had no food in the house, and I was now officially in charge of the dinner arrangements. I grabbed a pair of noise cancelling headphones, plugged them into my phone jack, and settled down to call her. She picked up, and I was relieved to hear that her voice rang clearly on the phone too. I started to prepare dinner for Charlie as I talked to her idly about the day, and what her plans were for this weekend. I then asked if I might be able to come over later, as I had something important to ask her.

"Of course! That's not a problem. Would you like to walk Rocky with me? My mom and brothers are home, so it would give us a little privacy." She was an incredibly diplomatic and thoughtful person. I was actually really relieved. I don't think I could have had even this quick phone conversation with Jessica without being bombarded with queries and begging for hints.

"Okay thanks. What time should I be there?"

"Ummmm, probably around seven would be best."

She gave me her address and I quickly scribbled it onto a pad we had in the kitchen by the landline. I thanked her, hung up, and then started my homework. It suddenly dawned on me that since my arrival in Forks I hadn't received any texts from my mom. My phone was working alright, so it had to be on Renee's side. She may have emailed me, so I went upstairs and turned on my ancient computer. There were three emails, all demanding my attention, all from my mother. Her first email explained her phone charger's mysterious disappearance, and the resulting silence. I typed back a quick response about my first day at school, my truck, the weather, and my nice new friends. I also added in some recommendations about where the phone charger might be. I started on my day's homework when suddenly my light flicked on. From the angle my desk was at, and thanks to my open door, I saw the change in light in the hallway as someone opened the front door downstairs. I yelled a good evening, and quickly shut off my computer. Homework could wait. I'd no doubt wake early in the morning after all. I walked downstairs and saw Charlie looking skeptically at the oven and the potatoes within.

"Don't worry Dad. It's just steak and potatoes. You're going to survive." I laughed.

He signed a quick Sorry.

"Hey – good job on that one!" I didn't realise he knew much more than the ASL alphabet. He smiled proudly.

"Been googling some stuff at work," he explained, blushing slightly. I knew where I got that blush from.

"Slow at the station then eh?" I laughed. He sat down, looking a little lost. I started to serve dinner up, and he began to ask how my first few days at school had been.

Good. "Good," I signed and spoke aloud, half to teach and half to practice. I told him about Jessica, Mike and Angela. He knew all of them, no surprises there. I half wanted to ask him about the Cullens, and then changed tact. I told him instead that I was going over to Angela's after dinner to talk with her about my hearing, and walk Rocky.

"I think that's a good choice. Angela's family is nothing but nice. Her mom brought me over a pie once, for helping track down their dog. He was only a couple streets over," he explained, as if his meager part in the fetching of Rocky hadn't earned him a whole pie. I laughed a little.

"We won't stay out late," I said, and we finished dinner in silence. It wasn't a bad silence, just a comfortable contentment. I went and grabbed my jacket, and rain boots – a necessity even when I wasn't sure if it was going to rain – and headed out to the car. I quickly typed her address into my phone and looked at the map. It was a 10 minute drive, but there was only one turn. Her house would be on the left. I drove carefully, keeping an eye out, and when I was finally on her street, I slowed down further to look at house numbers. It was getting darker, but I could still see them. Suddenly a light flicked on above a porch, and a dog, and a tall, slender girl exited the house. I pulled over and got out of my truck.

"Perfect timing," I called to her. She laughed, shaking her head.

"Not really, I could hear your truck coming down the street."

"It's that bad huh?" I sighed my shoulders falling slightly. I kept my eyes on her face as I introduced myself to Rocky. She laughed again. "It's got character." I added in defense.

And we set off, walking along in silence first. It had begun to drizzle slightly and the I was sort of relieved that she wasn't going to pry, or ask any leading questions. I started with asking her a question.

"Have you noticed that I'm kind of spacey sometimes?" I asked gingerly.

"You do seem to miss things when people talk to you sometimes, but I had just assumed you were super overwhelmed by everything that's been thrown at you the last few days," she smiled back. She was so nice. Seriously. I tripped over a curb slightly during her response, as I was trying to pay extra attention to her lips. Rocky walked slowly between us, casually sniffing and barely looking interested in the walk at all.

"Um… well… I'm not trying to be spacey. I actually can't hear people a lot of the time. I was – I mean – I lost a lot of my hearing during my teens, and I'm down to around fifteen percent, on a good day."

"Fifteen percent of what people say?" She asked, her eyes betraying shock, but her face remaining a neutral calm.

"Fifteen percent of everything. All noise. In fact, the more noise there is in a room, the less I catch. If there's a lot of sound going on, like in the cafeteria at lunch time, I have a super hard time picking up what people say." I scratched Rocky on the head, and watched Angela. She seemed thoughtful.

"Is it hard to hear me?" Angela asked, suddenly looking concerned.

"In general… not really no," I assured her quickly with a smile "you have a clear voice, that seems to be in my range of hearing, and you tend to face me when you speak to me, which helps direct the sound, and even if I miss something I can normally read it from your lips."

She stayed silent for a bit as we walked; mulling things over. I kept quiet, wanting to give her a chance to organize her thoughts. I looked around at the dense greenery, as I side stepped an ominous looking puddle. We had looped around a street block, and as far as I could tell, were heading back to Angela's.

"Do you miss a lot in classes then? When teachers turn away from you I mean," She clarified. She was intuitive and clearly thought things through thoroughly.

"Yeah actually. And when people talk really quickly in conversations, I have a hard time catching the start and end of the sentences, because I'm busy trying to figure out who is speaking sometimes."

We walked quietly again for a time. It was getting darker and I had to pay more attention to the ground, so I started to slow down.

"Do you…" she started, and then rephrased "Is it called signing?"

I started responding in both sign and speech, at least as best I could. "I don't sign as well as I speak, but I'm conversational." Angela smiled in awe.

"That's really cool. Am I right in assuming that this is a secret you don't really want people to know?"

I blushed and nodded. "If you wouldn't mind."

"I don't want to offend or anything, and please let me know if I do, but do you need notes in class or things like that?" She asked with a worried look on her face. I laughed and relaxed.

"That's exactly what I was hoping to ask you. If you'd lend me notes for the classes we're in so I can catch up a little, it would be amazing." We had stopped in front of her house. She smiled again and hugged me. Our coat zippers caught on each other, temporarily pinning us together and making us laugh as we disentangled ourselves.

"Thank you for trusting me with this, and I'll do whatever I can to help."