cool » l. hemmings

ii.

"Did you try and talk to the new boy you told me about?" The question was the first thing I asked my brother when he smiled to me. I wasn't going to pressure him into making friends, that wasn't at all what I was trying to do. If he wanted to, he could do it on his own. He didn't need to be babied. He was almost fourteen, Grady is far too old to be treated like he was a toddler again.

He smiled again, this time brightly, and nodded vigorously. He spelled out the name Ethan. 'Happy with an E.'

"Have you figured out Michael's name sign yet?"

For a moment he thought deeply about, before snapping his fingers and looking toward me. 'Idiot! Idiot with an M!' he signed for 'idiot,' as if it were his greatest name sign he'd ever given.

I laughed as Grady's attention had been redirected to something else. He pointed excitedly in front of us, where two boys were walking. Before I could stop him he started running toward them, and for a moment I forgot he couldn't hear me as I yelled, "Grady, wait!" and jogging to him.

When I reached him, he'd already began talking to the both of them. 'This is Ethan.'

I nodded and smiled, waving while signing a greeting in case he wasn't as good at reading lips as Grady was, though most at his school were.

'This is his brother.' Grady pointed to the blonde haired boy next to him, who did a small mumbled, "Hi."

Again, I nodded. I took a guess and decided that his brother was hearing, seeing as even with years of speech therapy no one could've sounded so clear if they weren't. "So I'm guessing you're the new family that's moved in?"

"We are," the brother said, his voice a bit deep. He flicked his head toward Grady, who was talking to Ethan. "That's your brother?"

"Yeah, guessing Ethan's yours?"

He smiled and nodded while looking over to the both of them. "Yeah, he is. I'm Luke, by the way."

"Michelle."

Luke didn't look like a typical teenage boy, nor did he act like one from the five minutes I'd been walking with him and his brother. He had his hair in a messy quiff and his hands were quite shaky, I'd observed that much.

In the sixteen years I've been alive I knew enough about boys to know that normally, the majority of them were confident, cocky. This boy carried himself weird. Not quite confident, not quite cocky. Not either really. He had a lighter sticking out of his right jean pocket, with his hand shoved into the other.

It was cooler than usual outside today. I'm not sure why, it was Australia. But it was still quite hot, I've learned that it's never below 30 degrees in the summer. Maybe there would be a bit of rain. That was actually quite common here, despite what people think.

Ethan tapped on Luke's shoulder. I watched as he asked Luke if he could hang out with Grady. Luke didn't reply for a few seconds, most likely a bit hesitant since both Grady and I were new people to them.

"I don't know, maybe another day," Luke told him, his hands moving with his words. It seemed weird to see anyone other than myself, Grady, and my mother sign. I had only witnessed my family or people at my brother's school do it, not that it was unusual but I didn't think there would be a chance that another non-hearing kid would move into the same neighborhood.

"I'm completely fine with having him over, if it's okay with you. You could come, too, if you're uncomfortable," I suggested. Both Ethan and my little brother seemed excited to talk to each other, no doubt not having talked to someone other than their family in a long time.