Cochlear | A Cobra Kai Fanfiction

5

After their mother left, things were back to normal and the twins read their notes.

Jesse,

I love you very much. Please go out and have some fun this summer, reach out to old friends, make new ones. Enjoy yourself and be kind.

Keep Kyler on the right track and both of you need to do your summer work. See you two in July.

With love,
Mom

Jesse and Kyler put down their notes and sighed. The rest of the week was uneventful and the girl kept counting the days til Wednesday.

When Wednesday came, Jesse once again got dressed and drove to the mall to meet her friend.

Just as she saw Demetri and the two waved at each other, panic filled her body as the familiar sound of her implants telling her to recharge the batteries.

"H-hey!" Jesse stuttered out distracted by her dying implants as the boy walked over. "How's it go?"

Demetri raised an eyebrow at the extra awkward greeting. "Everything okay? You look like someone's about to steal your soul and shove it into a pit."

"Yeah no, everything's fine." It was a little rushed, but Demetri decided to drop it. "So, how's your week been?"

"Well, I went to the beach with Eli and some other friends." Demetri started as the two walked into the shop to browse.

"Yeah? How'd it go?"

"I guess okay. He was still pretty snarky and wouldn't talk to me unless it was to tell me stop being such a nerd." Demetri rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to stop liking all the things I like just because he thinks it's lame."

Jesse nodded in agreement. "I agree with you. That's pretty dumb."

"Thank you!" Demetri cried out. "It's so frustrating..."

"Well, what are you doing for the rest of the week?"

Demetri pulled his phone out to check his calendar. "I've got an eye doctor appointment tomorrow and... ah. The all valley festival is Friday and they're doing some weird thing. So I'm going to that."

"They've got good elephant ears." Jesse tried to help the boy feel a little better. "It's not super bad." She loved going as a kid, but loud crowds were still hard for her to be in. She was still learning how to process multiple feedback inputs at once and it was always super overwhelming to her.

Jesse closed her eyes in frustration as her implant's batteries died. She forgot to charge them last night and since she wasn't at school or home, there was no way to get new ones quickly.

The world was silent and she looked at Demetri who was still talking. She still wasn't good at reading lips.

Waving her hand to catch his attention, Jesse pointed at her implants. "My batteries died."

"Can you read lips?" Demetri tried to make his lips easier to read. Which only served to make him look sillier and Jesse let out a small smile despite feeling mortified.

"I can't read lips."

Demetri nodded and grabbed his phone to type something out.

'Can we text?'

After looking at the sentence, Jesse smiled and nodded her head. As the two traded phone numbers they both realized neither of them knew each other's name.

"Demetri?" Jesse said, hoping she said it right. She couldn't hear herself.

Demetri liked the way she said his name and nodded. He replied with her name but paused realizing she couldn't hear it.

With a chuckled, Jesse pointed at his phone and Demetri typed out a question.

'Do you know sign language?'

Jesse moved her hand in a so-so way. She was still learning, but could communicate with her friends decently.

'How do I say your name in sign language?'

With a chuckle, Jesse smiled at the boy.

'Well, we don't really say 'say' but we 'sign'. You can spell my name or use my sign.'

Demetri nodded in understanding and clumsily copied the girls finger spelling. Jesse watched with a smile as the boy practiced it a few times and corrected him when needed.

Waving a hand she grabbed his attention and showed him 'hi, my name is...'

And the she made her own sign with a smile. Demetri then nodded determinedly and pointed at the girl, bounced his fingers together, and then signed her name.

Jesse waved her hands in the deaf clap and watched as Demetri bowed in mock appreciation.

'You don't have to stay around since I can't hear.'

Demetri furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. He wasn't going to let the girl leave when they could communicate with technology.

'I don't mind.'

With a grin, Jesse put her hand to her chin and pushed it towards the boy while mouthing 'thank you'. From then on, Demetri would copy a sign and try to memorize it, asking Jesse a question on occasion for clarification.

On their way to the food court Demetri's eyes caught the book store and wanted to look for something. He was unsure how to to get the girl's attention and opted to tap her on the shoulder.

Jesse looked over at Demetri in question and watched as he pointed towards the book store. She nodded and the two headed in.

Immediately Demetri searched for a book on ASL, determined to learn something new this summer to make things a little easier on his friend. Jesse watched the teen pick up the book and a small smile fell across her face.

Demetri was a really good friend.

A few days later Jesse headed down after waking up and looked at her dressed brother putting his shoes on.

"Where you going?" Jesse questioned.

"I've got a date." The boy smirked and pointed at the girl. "And you're going to be gone between the hours of 7 and 9."

Jesse scowled. "No way! What am I supposed to do?!"

Kyler shrugged. "Not my problem. Unless you wanna be scarred for the rest of your life."

"Yes because I want to hear whatever poor girl you've manipulated." Jesse sneered.

"Again, not my problem!" And her twin left her to figure out what to do to pass the time. Chewing on her lip, Jesse looked at her phone and thought about what Demetri said. Maybe she could go and lift his spirits?

But the thought of large crowds made the girl wince. She was still getting used to the implants even a year later. With a sigh, Jesse looked over at her moms note that reminded her to have fun and make new friends.

[TO DEMETRI]
I was thinking about going to the festival. Would you want to meet up or something?
{11:02 am}

Maybe she was overstepping their friendship? After all, they had only spoke three times and just learned of each other's names two days ago. Maybe it was too soon?

[FROM DEMETRI]
Sure. I will be there at 6:00 pm. Call me when you park and we can meet up.
{11:05 am}

Jesse felt her heart melt and had to contain the little squeal that wanted to come out of her mouth. Now she needed to figure out what to wear.

Did she have time to go get a new outfit?

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