GOLD RUSH , [ cole walter ]

one

I gave a small, "Hi," after George introduced Jackie and I. Alex just stared at Jackie until George told him to grab another bag from the car. That's when he stepped forward and shook Jackie's hand and said hi. I could see her blush a bit as she said hello and smiled to myself. Then, George showed us the kitchen where Katherine offered us lemonade. I smiled as I pulled my sleeves over my palms to hold it. I'm iron deficient so I tend to be cold a lot of the time, but it was pretty warm since it was summer. Still, the ice-y lemonade made my hands shiver. I felt Jackie move and turned to see her looking at something. When I looked up, I saw a picture of Katherine and our mom in caps and gowns. My chest tightened at the photo and I looked away.

"No, no. It's just the worst possible timing. I told you Charlotte and Jackie were coming today," Katherine said on the phone as she mouthed an apology. "Okay, of course. No, just tell her that I'll be right there. Okay, thank you."

Since she had to leave, we were introduced to Will. The skateboarding boy from earlier, or "Tony Hawk wannabe" according to Will, is apparently Lee. We were then brought up to a room where a boy was playing guitar and introduced to him.

"Nathan, this is Charlotte and Jackie."

"Hi," he stood up to shake our hands, "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Thanks, you too." Jackie replied while I simply smiled at him.

I also suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome and today has been a long day. I was gonna need a break soon, but I pushed it aside as I followed Jackie and Will outside. Will told us there that he was hard of hearing.

"So if I'm not looking at you, or there's a lot of background noise, I won't understand. Just FYI."

Jackie smiled, "Actually, Charlotte's been learning ASL for three years. She's not exactly fluent and I don't know if you know it.." she trailed as I began to blush from embarrassment.

"Really? I don't often meet people who know ASL," Will responded.

I nodded and signed back, "POSS-my SIGN-LANGUAGE OKAY IX" (My sign is okay.)

He smiled, "SEE-SEE" (We'll see.)

He turned to introduce us to Parker and Benny when a boy suddenly came out of the pool. I could see Jackie ogling him and shoved her side with my elbow.

"Wanna introduce yourselves?" Will said almost sarcastically.

"They'll figure it out," the blonde responded. I tried not to roll my eyes at this and just looked around.

"That's Cole."

AKA, first on my list of who to avoid.

Then a boy rushed down with a camera and filmed us.

"Um, hi?" I said.

"Jordan, aspiring film director," Will introduced. "Leave them alone, Jordan. Come on."

Then a dog came out of the pool and started to shake. I immediately hid behind Jackie who scoffed and glared at me playfully while I giggled. Meanwhile, Will was yelling at the dog, Albert, and apologizing. He passed Jackie a towel and she said it was fine. He told Cole to start bringing our stuff upstairs as he lead us to our room. Cole didn't reply, so Will repeated himself.

"I heard you," Cole replied.

I eyed the blonde curiously, but shrugged it off as I followed Jackie up the stairs. I already know he's going to be a lot to deal with. Will told us there was nine of them, including Lee and Isaac who were cousins on George's side.

"Wait, you all live here?" Jackie asked and my eyes widened at her audacity. I hit her lightly as Will laughed a bit at her comment.

"No, I live in town with my fiancé, Hayley." He then showed a door, "This is your room, I hope you don't mind sharing."

"It's fine, we're used to it," I reassured him. And it was true, Jackie and I always shared a room since we were little because we found it more fun. Of course, when we fought it was annoying, but it was worth the nights that we stayed up and laughed until our belly's ached or the sun rose.

Will smiled as we walked into the room, "It was my mom's art studio."

"Wow," Jackie said when suddenly a loud thud sounded and I turned around to see Cole standing there.

"Will, are you gonna help? There's a ton of stuff to bring up," he said.

I felt guilty when he said that and spoke up, "I can help." Jackie had the same thought apparently as we both said it at the same time.

"No," Will replied, "You guys make yourselves at home, okay?"

He walked out, but I looked at Cole, "Are you sure?"

He smirked, "Yeah. Don't worry about it, New York."

As he turned to walk out, I glared at his back. But, now with them gone I walked over to the bed on the left of the room and immediately laid down and pulled my knees to my chest. Jackie, worriedly, came over.

"Are you okay, Char?"

I smile, "I'm fine, Jackie. I'm just tired. You know how I am."

She frowned, "Promise?"

I nodded, "Promise."

Then, I drifted off into a nap.

elle speaks !
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just FYI!!! the asl is formatted that way because it's in asl gloss! I actually have been studying asl for 3 years and I have a Deaf teacher who is the best! shoutout ms. ioannides fr!!

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and charlotte is lowk me bc im iron deficient and im not technically diagnosed with any illnesses but im having blood testing done and chronic fatigue is the closest thing to my symptoms so yeah:)