Finding Fate

Chapter 24

The school was awful and ugly. The building was two stories, brown, drab, no windows except for a handful along the second floor. The grounds were flat, with only a handful of trees along the border. Square hedges grew along the outside walls between sets of doors. The hedges looked like they needed to be watered three months ago. There was a football practice area off to the left, a baseball diamond and some tennis courts beyond it. Each was well worn with holes in the mesh guards, and the benches looked warped. Beyond that, I could see the trailers, the number of them amazing me. I counted at least thirty and they extended out from the school. I wondered how anyone managed to get from one of those trailers to classes inside on time.

I walked towards the entryway but it was crowded. The off-white tiles inside the doors were cracked and uneven. Students coming and going made it difficult to navigate, and many of them stopped to talk to each other without concern of who they might be blocking. Most of the parents looked tired and were leaning up against the walls and out of the way. It took five minutes just to get through the side door.

I tried to navigate through the crowd towards the table for registration. Once I was in the main hallway, the crowd thinned out a little. There were tables lined up near a large glass window that overlooked the central, open-air courtyard. There was one large staircase in the middle of the hallway with parents sitting on the first few steps. Further down the hall, there was a line of vending machines and along the opposite wall was a trophy case. I didn't see any classrooms so far.

I had stepped in line for the registration table for last names beginning with r-z when I felt someone step behind me. I could feel his eyes on me, and I fidgeted. I hoped it wasn't a guy trying to flirt with me. With my voice gone, I didn't know if he would know sign language and I was definitely not going to give him my number so we could communicate by text. Suddenly there was a grunt and a heavy body knocked into me. I was thrown against the back of the boy in front of me.

"Oof," the boy I had just landed on said. He turned and I looked into familiar chocolate brown eyes. How did I not notice him? "Hello," he smiled down at me. He looked behind me and grinned. "North, don't you know it's bad manners to shove someone?"

I looked behind me to see a glowering North. The look on his face made me take a step back. When I did that, his face softened. "Sorry I pushed you."

I started to sign, thinking he knew the language. But as soon as I was waving my hands around, his face scrunched up into a confused look. He looked above me to his brother. "Luke, what is she saying?"

I turned towards Luke, thankful that he knew sign language. He spoke aloud as he was translating, "She says that it's okay. It is very crowded."

North stared at me. "What's wrong with your throat?"

Luke gaped at his brother. "North, that's rude." I attracted his attention and signed to him. Luke nodded. "She has laryngitis. That's why she's doing sign language." Suddenly his mouth opened in shock. "Sorry. I'm Luke Taylor, and this is my adorable and loving and younger brother North."

I had to act like I didn't know that fact. I whipped my head back and forth between the two. The fast movement made me light headed and I felt dizzy. A hand wrapped around my arm, steadying me. I looked up into North's dark eyes. He seemed worried. "Are you okay?"

I signed. I'm fine. Just a bit dizzy. I lied. I was still dizzy and was feeling light headed. It must have been from the sleepless night I had and nothing to eat this morning.

North narrowed his eyes at me, but before he could speak, two spots at the registration table opened. Luke and I scrambled to the places. I looked up to see Jax's smiling face. "Hello, little one."