"Are you okay?" Angela asked with honest compassion in her eyes. "If Edward gives you any trouble, don't feel afraid to report him – I've never seen him act like that, but it isn't right. What's your next class?"

"Umm, Art 101,"

"I have photography, they're in the same classroom. Do you want me to show you how to get there?"

A quick glance at my map answered that question for me. "Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem."

It was becoming a good day.

.

When Charlie came home from work that night, I didn't say much, just made dinner for the two of us and ate quickly. I had a good time with Angela in art class, but with my mother's video call looming ahead and the memory of that Edward guy, angry and vicious, in Biology behind me, I wasn't in the best of moods.

Apparently, my dad noticed.

"You okay, Bells?" he asked, stopping my with a touch to my arms as I started up the stairs to my room. "You look upset," he added, clearly nervous.

I almost denied it, but something stopped me when I looked at him fully. "It's stupid," I told him, hedging. "I figured it would happen at some point." He continued giving me the same imploring look, silently waiting for me to continue, and I sighed. "There was a boy in my science class today. I think he doesn't like me because I'm Deaf."

Charlie blinked in surprise, and his shoulders sagged – he hadn't wanted this for me. "Oh, Bells – sweetheart. I'm so sorry. Who was it? What did he say to you?"

"My hair fell around my face as I shook my head quickly. "No, Dad," I signed. "He didn't say a word to me. He just saw me and began glowering, like I'd killed his puppy or his best friend. It was like he hoped my head would explode if he stared long enough – he did it the entire class."

My dad's frown grew, and he asked what the boy's name was, if I knew. "My lab partner Angela – kind with an 'A' – said his name was Edward." I told him, finger-spelling the angry boy's name. Judging by Charlie's face, he didn't quite catch it.

"Again?"

I nodded. "E-D-W-A-R-D. Angela said his last name was something like Collin? I couldn't read her lips well."

Charlie's face grew dark. "I think I know who he is," he frowned. I blinked, taken aback slightly by the upset I could see on his face. It was just a stupid hearie guy, I'd dealt with worse, just not in school. Usually, school was a safe haven for me, which was why it had upset me today, but surely Charlie wouldn't be so wound up about it unless –

Did Edward have a criminal record? That would explain why my dad knew his name, he might have been arrested before. I felt unease churn in my stomach at the thought. What if this boy was violent? I gulped, and hoped nothing bad happened. I may ask for a schedule change, after asking about this boy a bit. Maybe Angela or Faith would know something.

Seeing Charlie punch the buttons on the phone with his fingers, I decided I may as well just leave then, and slowly backed up the steps to my room.

Once I was inside, I stumbled a bit trying to turn on my desk light, and waited for my computer to boot up. It didn't take very long, though the computer itself was very nearly ancient. I'd taken good care of it since Charlie put it in my room three years ago, fresh from a garage sale. It had hardly been worth saving then, but I checked a few computer books out from the library, and Rachel Black helped me set it up so that it actually ran, and didn't have many pop-ups, either. Now it worked on par with a school computer, so long as I didn't run a lot of programs at once.

That was when things started crashing.

My desktop finished loading, and I closed out a few starting windows, nagging at me to update, opting instead to open up my video calling program, checking to see if Renee was online yet. She was. I blinked, surprised. With a shrug, I clicked the video call button, and waited for her to pick up.

A picture blinked into existence, but the face wasn't my mother's. It was Phil's. He waved, and said something I couldn't quite make out – maybe he was going to get my mother?

I assumed I was right, as she appeared onscreen a moment later wearing a pretty black formal dress, her hair in a curly updo, and still putting in one earring. "Bella!" she smiled upon seeing me. "Oh, honey, it's so good to see your face. How's school? Did Charlie find you an oral program like I asked? You need to remember to work on your speech."

That caused me to frown. "I'm fine, Mom," I said, signing as I spoke. "I have an interpreter at school, and I've made a few friends – I'm really liking Forks."

My mother frowned at me. "Bella, stop that –" she flapped her free hand toward me, "– whatever it is, I don't speak sign language, and it's not good for you to rely on it; you won't be able to get anywhere in life if you don't talk to people!"

"It's called sim-com, Mom," I sighed, and I let my hands fall still. "Simultaneous communication. I wasn't signing anything I wasn't saying in English."

She continued to frown, and once her earring was fixed, shook her head. "Well, I just don't like it," she said stubbornly. "You look silly like that, and it's an unneeded crutch." She sighed, and glanced at the wall clock I knew from memory was hung above and to the right of the computer desk. "You need to tell Charlie to put you in a good oral program," she stated, and smoothed out imaginary wrinkles on her dress.

I let it lie. "Are you going somewhere?"

Renee perked up considerably at that, and launched into a rapid-fire monologue about her date night with Phil – I was pretty sure they were seeing a community theatre show, and going out to eat somewhere, but didn't make out much more than that. I nodded and smiled when it looked like she wanted me to, and soon the call was over. Once it was, I jabbed the power button on the computer, and fell back onto my bed.

I was so tired.

.

The next day at school was... strange. As I walked to the cafeteria, I was intercepted by a tall blond boy with light gold eyes. He smiled at me, and I was surprised to find myself grinning back – he had a very easy grin, and it was infectious. "Hi," he said slowly. I furrowed my brows a bit, wondering if he was doing it on purpose, or if he just had a natural drawl. "My name's -per Cullen, I'm Edward's brother..."

He trailed off, noticing my unusually good mood drop off my face in a moment. "Look," I said, "I don't know what I did to insult your brother, but you tell him to leave me alone – and can you please repeat your name for me? I didn't catch all of it."

Mister Tall-Blond-and-Handsome looked taken aback for a moment, but repeated his name: Jasper. And then he went on talking. More lip-reading, hooray.

Wow, I was in a really terrible mood, even for it being early, I realized, surprised at myself.

"I realize you probably wanna eat, but I just wanted to apologize on behalf of my family for how my brother acted toward ya yesterday. It wasn't right, and when Chief Swan called us yesterday evenin' about it, we were all upset. Edward's spending some time with relatives in Alaska for the next week, but we wanted to make sure ya knew that we don't condone what he did, if'n it makes a difference."

I blinked at him, surprised - "You're apologizing?" I asked, wanting to make absolutely sure I understood what he was saying. "For your brother?"

Jasper nodded.

"I – okay," I stammered, a bit baffled. Then, suspiciously, ""You aren't just saying this because my dad called you, are you?

The boy quickly shook his head, and I let it go – I felt like he was being honest, and to be truthful myself, I really wanted to eat.

"Well, um, thanks, then. I'm going to go, uh, eat, now... Bye!"

Later that day, I found that I hated Trigonometry. So much.

Ms. Schreiber wasn't a bad teacher, really. But she got... annoyed when I asked her to repeat things more than once. Apparently I needed to ask things exactly when she was going over them, which was hard, considering that an interpreter was not real-time. There was a lag while Pamela listened to and translated what the teacher was saying.

I understood that – I wasn't even surprised.

I was still slouching in my seat by the end of the period, not bothering to raise my hand when I had a question: there wasn't a point to it. "Train gone,"* indeed.

Not much happened at school, I found. I enjoyed talking to Heather, Faith, and Ben, and occasionally to some of my other classmates. They were on the whole extremely nice, and I didn't mind answering their questions. They didn't really seem to understand that when I said I couldn't hear, it meant I couldn't hear anything they said, though. I took to carrying a book with me to lunch, since it was so difficult to follow conversations in large groups; it was easier to entertain myself rather than tie myself in knots attempting to read everything they said.

That's not to say that I didn't talk to anyone, I did. But I preferred to do so one on one, or with maybe three people at a time. After that, I started missing things more often, and it was too much to keep up with. Thus, I stuck to small groups, and faded into the background as much as possible, smiling and nodding to bluff my way through conversations. I was fine with it, and while I missed the easy access to conversation I had in Phoenix, I didn't mind being mainstreamed. Not much really happened, from my perspective.

A few incidents did stick out, however.

One such incident happened the first day of my second week at Forks High. I was eating lunch in the library, going over my Trig notes, trying to figure out a few things that had baffled me in class, when I noticed someone walking up to me. A pretty girl with curly brown hair and blue eyes waved and sat down across from me. "Hi!" she exclaimed, and thrust her hand forward across the table. "I'm Jessica. Can I, like, ask you some questions?"

I blinked. "O... kay?"

Jessica perked up, and wiggled in her seat happily. She reminded me of Amber Lee, a Deaf ten year old from PDSD I used to babysit. Amber was a very hyper, self-satisfied child. "Awesome," Jessica said happily. "Okay, so I was wondering – how do you live?"

I stared at her, taken aback. "Excuse me?" I asked.

"How do you live? Like, without sound. I mean, you can't listen to music, or actually hear know what people are saying – I read online, you don't know more than sixty percent of what I'm saying right now, and the rest is just guessing stuff, right? So, uh, how do you live? Doesn't it suck not being able to hear?"

Amazed, I leaned back in my seat. This girl was... blunt, I'd give her that. Usually I didn't meet hearies that were so to the point. I frowned, thinking of how to explain it to her in a way she'd understand. Finally, I gave up, and just started talking.

"I don't remember sound," I said bluntly. "So I don't know whatever it is I'm supposed to be missing. I went deaf when I was three months old. And I do like music – I turn up the volume loud, and feel the vibrations. With my hearing aids, I can even hear some of the parts I don't feel.

"And you're right – I can read sixty percent of what you're saying on your lips, and have to figure out the rest, the context and all that, from your body language and other visual cues. But being Deaf doesn't suck. I'm proud to be Deaf, in fact. My ears don't work enough for the hearing world. So instead, I am a part of the Deaf world, where I can meet anyone, and have an instant connection. I sign, and I have a beautiful culture with history, poetry, and humor." I shrugged.

"I like being Deaf. I wouldn't change it. Where you have sounds, I have lights and buzzers to shake me or catch my attention visually. I live visually, and you live audibly. Does that make sense?" I asked, calming down, mentally stepping away from my soapbox.

Jessica blinked, and nodded. "Uh, yeah?" She got up. "I'm gonna go..."

With a sigh, I dropped my head into my arms. I probably just made my entire community seem like a bunch of psychos to her.

.

*'Train gone' is a Deaf phrase that means... *thinks on how to phrase this* … it means that the metaphorical train has left the station; the moment's passed. It can refer to instances like Bella's in class, or to, for example, someone not getting a joke. By the time the funny part is explained to them, it's not funny anymore. "Train gone." Does that make sense?

Anywho, I hope oyu liked it, and did I end it well? I feel like I may have cut off to abruptly. Tell me what you thought!

And of course, EatYourRikkios. :)