With Eyes to Hear and Hands to Speak

Chapter 27: Of Two Truths and a Lie and Chemistry Experiments

                  

John's POV

I made my way out of the gym to where Dave was waiting. *Ready for this new guy?* He asked, pointing to his name on my schedule. I shrugged and slipped my hand in his as we walked to class.

We reached the room and looked inside, finding only about eight other people in the class, including Karkat, Nepeta, and Terezi, who were all sitting together at one of the large round tables.

I walked over to them and sat, with Nepeta on one side and Dave sitting on the other. I looked over at Terezi, who was on Nepeta's other side, then at Nepeta, who was just a bit closer to Terezi than is usual for friends, and wiggled my eyebrows at her.

She made a face at me that clearly said shut your whore mouth more than anything. I held up my hands in a surrender motion. Dave looked at us weirdly.

*I will let Nepeta explain it to you, since it is not my place to. I also need to tell the teacher that I'm deaf.* Dave nodded and turned to Nepeta for an explanation as I walked to the front.

I approached Mr. Veloz, who had his back to the classroom and was writing something on the board. I tapped him on the back, which startled him into dropping the marker. I apologized the best I could and picked up the marker, going to the board and writing in the corner, 'I'm deaf.'

I stood back to let him see. He nodded and a look of concentration appeared on his face. He then brought up his hands and slowly started signing. *I'm glad you told me before class started. Please excuse me if my signing is off.*

I nodded and replied slowly, *I'm John Egbert. There is another student in this class who is mute. His name is Dave Strider, and he's the one wearing shades.*

Mr. Veloz looked over to where I had indicated and then back to me. *Thank you. I look forward to teaching you.*

I smiled at him and went back over to our table. *I told him you were mute, too, Dave.* I said after sitting down. He nodded and laid his head on my shoulder. I looked over at Nepeta, who was animatedly telling a story, and Terezi, who seemed to be listening to her avidly.

I looked around more and saw that Rose and Feferi had joined us. Vriska rushed in at the last minute, but avoided our table, casting a glare in Terezi's direction.

Terezi, of course, didn't notice the glare, but she seemed to be scowling now.

I looked over at Dave and asked, *What happened between them?* gesturing at them with my head.

*They had some sort of falling out over the summer or something. I didn't get the details.* he explained. *But the teacher is talking now, which means we should stop.*

We both turned to face the front where Mr. Veloz was speaking, and signing along slowly. *Hello! I am Mr. Veloz, but I would like for you to just call me Carlos. I know that will probably be weird, but please.

*Now, I thought that we could start off class with a get-to-know-you game. Two truths and a lie. I'll go first.*

He wrote his three 'facts' on the board.

-I'm allergic to cats.

-My boyfriend has a cat.

-I am married.

Most people were guessing one or two, but it turned out that three was the lie. His boyfriend had found a cat in the bathroom of where he worked, and while it wasn't technically his, he was the one who mostly took care of it.

I had written down my three statements already by the time Carlos had started calling on people. Nepeta was the first to go, and Carlos had asked that everyone come up and write on the board. Her statements were, I like cats, I was born in South Korea, I hate Dr. Seuss. The last one was a lie.

Nextit was my turn. I went up to the board and wrote, I know 4 languages, I grew up in Washington, I live with my dad and sister.

People mostly guessed the first one. When I informed them of their wrongness though, Carlos asked, *What languages do you know? And where did you grow up?*

Hindi, French, English, ASL. I grew up in India and moved to France when I was five.

Carlos nodded, impressed, before dismissing me back to my seat.

Then it was Dave's turn.

Dave's POV

I walked up to the board and wrote down three things off the top of my head. I'm allergic to caramel, I have three brothers, and I once broke my leg when I jumped off of the roof.

The second one was the lie.

"Why did you jump off of a roof?" Carlos asked, signing along.

My oldest brother dared me to, and I had to prove I wasn't chicken. I was also a very impressionable 9 year old.

I erased the sentences after letting the class read them and sat down.

The rest of the first half of class was spent playing the game. There were some pretty simple things, such as I am 5'8" when they were really 5'9" or similar things to what I did with changing the number of siblings.

Then there was the ridiculous stuff. I've been to the moon, I have a third eye, my grandma is the oldest person alive, I've starred in three movies, I'm a mind reader, et cetera. The third thing actually turned out to be true.

During the second half of class, Carlos showed us several different experiments with chemicals.

"I know that you need to fill out a lab safety contract before you can do any experiments in the classroom, but there's nothing that states that I can't show you some." He told us just before grabbing several different items and mixing a green liquid with water.

Carlos did a few other things, involving fire, electricity, and mini- explosions. I am still pretty sure that half of the reactions were unintentional. He was explaining what he was doing while he was doing it, but since he was using his hands, he couldn't sign along as he spoke. Rose took up the job and stood at the front of the class, signing, while watching our teacher intently.

The class was so transfixed by what Carlos was doing that no one noticed that the bell had rung for a few seconds. When I looked up to see everyone gathering their things, I turned and plucked John's sleeve to get his attention. He looked at me and then around at everyone else, the majority of them going out the door and off to their next class.

John went up to Carlos and I followed him, waiting for him so we could walk to our next class together.

*That was really cool!* John said excitedly.

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it, John.* Carlos replied, grinning.

*Bye, Carlos!* John said, walking through the door. I followed him, waving.

*So, What's next?* I asked.

John looked down at his schedule and said, *History, Mr. Novak. What about you?*

I looked at my own schedule and smirked. *Same here. Shall we?* I asked, offering up my arm.

*We shall.* John answered, grabbing my arm.

********

Hey! If you don't know, Carlos is from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. I just really like it, and thought it was time that I added it into the story along with whatever other fandoms I've got here. I've also been thinking of writing another JohnDave fic after I'm done with this one. It will be called Just Don't Jump. I've also started writing a Sockathan fic called Hello, Neighbor! If anyone is interested in that. Well, I haven't published anything yet. If you want to know what they're about, just message me! But yeah, that's it, vote, comment, and have a good day/night!