I smiled up at my new high school, Shutoku, admiring the building that I would go to for the next three years. My mom squeezed my shoulder and I looked at her. She smiled back at me. "Ready?" She signed with a quick hand.
"Ready," I confirmed, repeating the sign confidently, and we walked into the building.
It was still early and the bell wasn't even going to ring for half an hour, so there were barely any students around. I felt a fizz of excitement as my mom led me towards the office. Everything about the school felt warm and cozy. When it came to it in middle school, I chose Shutoku as my high school and passed the entrance exams easily. My grades were fair enough that the administrators were willing to still accept me as a student despite my deafness, and they hired an interpreter for me who we were meeting with before classes started.
My mom walked up to the secretary's desk and they spoke for a few moments before she tapped my wrist to follow her through the door on the right, which I assumed was the principal's office.
The principal greeted us warmly and I was introduced to him and my interpreter. We went over some basic things like my class schedule and stuff and then it was time for us to start heading to class. My mom said goodbye to me and my interpreter led me to my first class.
When we got to the classroom, I looked around to take in the sight for a moment before I sat down at one of the desks in the front row. My interpreter went around to make sure the room was bright enough, putting up the blinds that covered the large windows and letting the sunlight in.
Students were starting to come in now and take their own seats. I watched as everyone milled around, their mouths moving in animated discussions that I wasn't interested in lip-reading, so I didn't bother focusing my energy on it. My interpreter took a spare seat from the back of the classroom and set it against the wall at the front so he was sitting facing me.
My first period teacher came in just a few minutes later. Introductions were quick, my interpreter signing my teacher's name and then jumped right into the lesson after he signed to me that she was explaining who he was to the rest of the class.
The morning classes went by with a rush and in no time, it was time for lunch. My interpreter waved goodbye to me, promising that he would be back for the rest of my afternoon classes. I smiled and nodded, flashing him a quick 'see you later' with my fingers.
I had just finished packing up when a tall boy with green hair and glasses approached me. I looked at him curiously, my eyes flickering to his lips to lip-read what he was going to say, but instead, he surprised me by raising his hands up to his chest and signing. "Hello, my name is Midorima Shintaro."
I looked at him quizzically. "You know sign language?" I signed back, my signs small and slow in disbelief. It was really rare for another person in my year, much less my class to know sign language that wasn't just cursing. He didn't have an interpreter so he wasn't deaf like me. "Are you Hard of Hearing?" I guessed.
He shook his head. "My grandmother is deaf. I learned sign for her," he explained. His signs were fluid and quick, so he must have been signing for a few years.
My surprise faded and I smiled at him. "Nice to meet you Midorima. I'm (L/n) (F/n)."
He nodded to acknowledge my greeting. Feeling a bit braver, I asked, "Want to eat lunch together?"
"Fine," he signed dismissively. "But not that I care. I'm only talking to you because I don't want you to feel alone."
I found myself smiling. Midorima was strange but he seemed like a good person.
Once we got to the cafeteria and found a place to eat, Midorima stopped and looked over at me, waiting for something. He gestured at the table. "You sit first."
My eyes widened in surprise and I turned to stare at him for a second. He just stared back at me emotionlessly. I put my bag down and sat down, Midorima then deliberately sitting across from me to sign easily to me while we ate.
I noticed the small tape dispenser next to his bento and put down my chopsticks to ask him about it.
"It's my lucky item," he explained, putting his hand on it for a moment.
"You like horoscopes?" I asked curiously.
He nodded seriously, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"Cool!" I signed with a smile, my fingers flashy and fast. I wasn't that into horoscopes but they were interesting to read about. We kept talking until it was time for us to go back to class.
The next day, lunch came again after our first four classes. I said goodbye to my interpreter and he left to have his own lunch. After I packed up my things, I turned to Midorima, hoping we could have lunch together again but he was already speaking to a boy with black hair. I waited patiently until his lips stopped moving before I waved to him to catch his attention. He looked at me with a serious gaze, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Do you want to have lunch together again?" I signed to him, trying not to feel self conscious of the other boy staring at me as I signed.
"Sure," Midorima signed with a shrug. "Don't care."
I smiled. "Great!" I signed happily. Then, to be polite I signed, "Your friend wants to come too?" I pointed at the shorter boy.
I wish I knew his name. I only knew our teachers' names from when my interpreter signed them to me yesterday during each class, and Midorima's since he told me. But no one else bothered to introduce themselves to me or tell me the names of my classmates.
Midorima turned to his friend and said something to him, probably forwarding my invitation. The boy grinned and responded to Midorima, who then turned back to me.
"He says yes," Midorima reported with neat signs. "His name is Takao."
I nodded, turning to Takao and giving him a polite smile and a small wave, since he wouldn't understand the sign for hello. He flashed a smile back and started to say something, but his mouth was too fast for me to lip-read. I looked over at Midorima helplessly. Before I could even sign anything to him, he was already speaking to Takao, frowning in obvious irritation. Takao blushed in embarrassment and said a few words back before he faced me again and began speaking again, this time a bit slower.
"Nice. . . meet. . ." I read from his lips. Even though I missed a few words, I understood what he meant and smiled, nodding to him so that he would know that I was happy to meet him too.
"Let's go now," Midorima signed, his lips moving at the same time to communicate with both me and Takao.
I grabbed my bag from my chair and followed him out, Takao walking next to me. We all went into the cafeteria and found an empty table. Just like yesterday, Midorima waited for me to sit down first and then sat opposite of me. Takao sat next to Midorima and we took out our bentos, praying our thanks together before digging in. I watched them speak as I ate my food, catching a few words from their lips, but not many.
I saw the word 'gym' and what I thought was 'tall' or 'ball.' It honestly could have been either. And then 'team,' which I nearly mistook for the word 'meme' if I didn't see that Takao had showed his teeth, making the 'Ch' sound for 'Chīmu,' the Japanese word for team instead of pressing his lips together to make the 'M' sound. These were the things I had learned to distinguish from speech therapy for similar sounding words. It took a long time but I became pretty good at putting together what people were saying.
Takao gestured to me, but he was still looking at Midorima, obviously still speaking to him. I looked at him curiously, paying more attention to him in case he wanted to say anything to me.
Midorima looked at him with a disapproving face. "Talk. . . self." I watched him say.
Takao spoke so rapidly I had no clue what he even could possibly be saying, only just barely catching the word 'deaf.' All I knew was that they were probably talking about me. I dropped my gaze, focusing on my lunch. My skin prickled uncomfortably and my heart sank. Was I not a normal person in his eyes?
I picked at my food until Takao tapped the table, getting my attention. I looked up at him reluctantly and he began to speak. ". . . sorry. . . like. . . sports?"
I gave him a small half smile and nodded, mouthing my favourite sport to him while signing it. His eyes lit up, and he started to speak passionately about his own favourite sport: basketball. While I could follow along with some of his words, Midorima helped out by signing while Takao spoke, adding his own thoughts to the conversation as well.
As the days went by, I started settling in with the other students. I learned more about Midorima and Takao, and we were all pretty good friends now. I knew about Takao's Hawk Eye and Midorima's special three pointers. I was getting particularly close to Takao despite our communication barrier. They were also getting more popular, especially Takao because of his charm and personality. Girls would often stop him in the hallways or before lunch to speak to him and from what I was guessing, to flirt with him as well based on their body language.
It was another one of those days where Takao was surrounded by a group of girls in the hallway. I let out a small sigh, waiting for him a good distance away. I didn't mind his popularity. I thought that it was great that he was fitting in so well at school but it was tiring sometimes. Especially when the fangirls would come up to him when I was with him and would completely ignore me, even trying to make Takao come with them instead.
Takao's POV
I looked at (F/n) over the girls around me, giving her an apologetic grin. She smiled back at me, but it didn't reach her eyes. I knew her well enough already that it was her passive smile, the kind of smile that has some sort of loneliness behind it.
"Why are you friends with that girl?" One of the fangirls suddenly asked. I snapped my head back to her in surprise.
"You mean (F/n)?" I asked.
"Yeah." She shrugged, obviously not interested in (F/n)'s name. "Isn't it like, hard? She can't hear you or anything. How do you even talk to her?"
My eyes wandered back over to (F/n), meeting her gaze. I found myself smiling again like a dork as I stared at her. "We make it work," I replied to the girl, still looking at (F/n). I learned a lot by having her as my friend, and I wouldn't have preferred her any other way. "She's my friend and she's still human like us."
(F/n)'s POV
It was lunchtime once again. Takao and Midorima had gone ahead of me since I had to have a quick meeting with the principal and my interpreter about how I was doing in class and making sure that my grades weren't being affected. After I was dismissed, I went to find my friends, searching for them as I looked around the now busy cafeteria.
Takao waved me over enthusiastically, nearly smacking Midorima in the face. I watched as annoyance spread over Midorima's face and he turned to scold Takao. I laughed as I made my way over to them.
"Hi guys," I signed, sitting down across from them. I took out my bento and opened it up. "How's it going?" I added with a quick hand as I fished out my chopsticks.
Midorima waited until I found my chopsticks and was paying attention to him before he started signing. "It's going fine. Takao has something to tell you."
"Okay," I signed before turning to Takao, looking at him expectantly. I figured he was going to have me read his lips or pass me a note like usual, but to my surprise, he lifted his hands up and began to sign.
"Hi (F/n)!" He signed, using his pointer fingers and curling them down together, almost as if he was pretending to use a camera and was snapping a picture. That was how you signed hello in Japanese Sign Language.
"I'm good." He continued to sign slowly. "I'm learning sign language for you!" He beamed at me, his index finger still pointing at me.
I blinked rapidly. Did Takao really just sign?! I looked over at Midorima questioningly, but all he did was push the bridge of his glasses up his nose and look away, preoccupied with his book.
Seeming panicked by my lack of response, Takao started signing again. "I'm sorry! Did I sign wrong?"
I smiled broadly at him and shook my head quickly to reassure him. "Thank you," I signed back to him. "How did you learn to sign?" I made sure I signed slowly, since Takao must have just learned sign language.
He looked at my hands, eyes narrowed in concentration. His mouth was moving, probably repeating what the signs meant to himself as he tried to figure out what I said. His eyes lit up a moment after I asked the question, and he proudly pointed to Midorima. "He taught me," he signed happily.
I tapped the table lightly to get Midorima's attention. When he looked up, I signed, "Thanks Midorima."
He set his book down on the table and signed back matter-of-factly, "I only did it because he kept telling me to. And now I don't need to sign for him anymore."
I giggled at that, and then looked back at Takao. "Thanks for learning for me. You're a good friend."
He grinned back, a light blush tinting his cheeks as he read my signs. "I'm happy I can talk with (F/n)!" He signed.
I smiled and nodded, agreeing with him. "I'm happy too."