Ghost Bird... Do You Hear Me?Book II

Honeysuckles

I walked around the beautiful campus, having no idea why I had been dropped off here, or even where here was. I saw a group of eight kids of various ages walking towards me.

They seemed nice. I waved at them and kept on walking.

"Hey! Where is the rest of your team? That was rude of me. Hi, I'm Alyosha. This is Phoenix, Violet, Nova, Aiden, Ricci, Cadence, and Cherie. Nice to meet you...?"

"Oh, um, Christoph. Christoph Metsos. You too. Actually, it's just me. My team bugged out on me last minute. I didn't want to be a quitter, so I came anyways. I am staying over in Mercer Hall. Where are you staying?" I needed to talk to them. I didn't know why, but I did.

The one guy, Alyosha, deferred to the next guy and started talking with his hands. Was he deaf? Before he could get much of anything out, the shorter, mixed boy, Ricci, started talking. "Alyosha, I believe what you are looking for is Schmidt Hall."

The kid, Alyosha, looked embarrassed, and laughed it off. Wow, I don't know when the last time I actually heard laughter. I couldn't join in though. Something was stopping me. So my face made a look closer to snarling.

Phoenix, the one wearing the hoodie, started waving his arms all over the place. "Uh, what's wrong with him?" If looks could kill, I would be dead right now. Open mouth, insert foot.

The girl that was introduced as Violet, started talking. "Where are you from? I don't often get rude or defensive, but that's my brother and... actually, never mind. Just, where are you from? Apparently you have never been exposed to the hearing impaired. My brother, Phoenix, is deaf. So, he speaks using sign language. Here, let me teach you how to introduce yourself. First you would place your hand on your chest, then with both hands, put your pointer fingers and middle fingers together and make them touch twice making an X. Good. Now we are going to spell your name." She spelled out each letter of my name several times. Eventually her brother interrupted and made a C with hand, placing it on his forehead, then making a downward motion across his face. "That is how he is going to say your name rather than you having to spell it out every time. Sound good?"

I liked it. I think I smiled, almost. The looks on their faces said otherwise.

"Since you are on your own for the moment, why don't you hang out with us. We will help you get settled after we get all of our stuff in." I think the Native American looking girl was Nova.

"Actually, I think I will meet up with you guys later. I need to email my friends and hash out why they bailed. This is going to make leadership training interesting. Leadership training for one, yay." I waved and started to walk away.

"Hey, we'll be around," Nova yelled after me. She seemed nice. Beautiful too. I wouldn't mind getting to know her a little better. Every time I looked at her though, that Phoenix guy seemed to block my sight of her.

Phoenix's POV:

We had just gotten our luggage out and kissed mom goodbye.

Give her a kiss from me too, Son.

I rolled my eyes and picked up Nova's bag along with mine.

Nova looked at me and giggled. "What are you rolling your eyes at? What did my brother do this time?"

Signing back, I answered, "You wouldn't even begin to understand. Heck, I don't even understand half the time. Let's go."

We set off down the sidewalk towards the dorms. As we approached, there was a guy standing there, probably about our age. We almost passed him right up. He had a slim frame, but muscular frame, around five feet eight inches, and had chestnut brown hair. He could get lost in a crowd easily. He looked as though he was enjoying the scenery. After he waved, we kept on talking and moving on.