Chapter 3

Rouasha's POV

 

-the next morning-

 

I wake up to someone lightly nudging my shoulder. I look up to see Sam smiling at me. "Time to get up." he says.

I nod and I sit up.

"You have about half an hour to get ready." he says then walks out of the door, closing it behind him.

I get up and go to the bathroom that's joined with the room and take a shower. After I'm done I wrap a towel around my waist and I grab another to dry my hair. I walk out of the shower and get dressed.

With my hair still wet and iPad in my hand I walk to Sam's room.

I knock on the door and hold my iPad up when he opens the door with it saying 'You have a blow dryer I can use?'

He nods and leads me to his bathroom and points to the blow dryer. I notice he has a straightener too so I straighten my hair after blow drying.

After I'm all ready I walk back into Sam's room and I notice he isn't there. So I walk down to the kitchen and he's there talking to his mom.

He notices I walk in the room and turns to me and smiles.

"You all ready to go?" he asks.

I nod.

"Good, let's have breakfast first though." he points me over to the table and I sit down. A couple minutes later he sets down a plate in front of me with bacon, eggs, and toast. He then sits across from me with a plate of the same thing.

We eat in silence. After we finish Sam asks me if I'm ready and I nod. We put our shoes on and grab our stuff and walk to his car. Yes his car, Grr he's so lucky. The drive to school was quiet.

 

***

 

We arrive at the school and Sam turns me to look at him.

 

 

"Just so you know, I'm not out of the closet." he says.

I get my iPad out. 'Ok, I understand. I wonder how they're gonna react when they see I'm not by myself anymore.'

"Hmm, that's a good question."

'And what about your friends?'

"I will introduce them to you, and if they don't like you, they can leave."

'That works.'

We walk up to the school and a boy walks up to us and I assume he's one of Sam's friends.

"Hey Sam." he eyes me. "Whatcha doing with the f*g?"

"Dude do not call him that. What did he do to you?" Sam says angrily.

"Dude, he's a f*g, he likes guys, that's not natural."

"So? I got to know him a lot yesterday. Once you get to know him you can see he's just like everybody else!"

"Ha! You wish! He can't hear, can't talk, and he's a f*g. He probably doesn't even know what we're saying."

I would say I can, but I think it's best to stay out of this.

"Last I checked, he's a pro at lip-reading."

"Oh my bad. You know what? I'll give you a choice: you can either choose me and my gang, or the f*g."

"I choose Rouasha."

"Who?"

Sam points to me.

"Oh, guess I just never knew his name."

"Whatever b***h." Sam shoves him out of the way and walks into the school after grabbing my wrist.

He walks to his locker and turns to me. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

'It's ok.' I type.

"I'm wondering, are you allowed to have that in class?"

'Yep, I got special permission to have it so I could answer questions the teacher asks me and such.'

"How do you know what the teacher's saying? They aren't always facing the class."

'I have someone who writes down notes for me.'

"Ah, that explains the person sitting in the back."

'Yep.'

I look around the hallway as Sam opens his locker to get his stuff for his first class while I see a counselor approach me.

"Rouasha?" he asks me.

I nod.

"Can you come to my office please?"

I look at Sam with a confused look and he shrugs. I look back at the counselor and nod. He nods back and leads me to his office.

"I heard about your parents." he says after we sit down in his office.

I stare at him with sadness in my eyes.

"I am so sorry you had to deal with that. Do you have anybody to live with?"

'Yeah, Sam, the guy I was just with.'

He smiles. "It's good to finally see you make a friend."

I smile and I nod.

"How are you dealing with this?"

'Better than I expected. I mean, it's not like they ever acted like real parents anyway. They barely fed or clothed me. They were rarely home the same time I was. It never really felt like they actually care for me. That they actually loved me.'

"I'm so sorry Rouasha." he suddenly looks up then back at me. "That's the bell, you should get going."

'K, can I get a pass? I still need to go to my locker.'

He nods and writes me a pass.

I take the pass and quickly walk to my locker. Once I get my stuff I turn around and I see 3 guys standing in front of me.

"Hey f*g! Did you find a friend? Aw, I didn't know someone like you was capable of something like that." one of the guys said. He grabs my bag and turns it upside down and dumps everything, including my iPad. Another guy laughs and pushes me against the lockers then the first guy drops my bag on the floor. He laughs also and walks away with his group following him.

I quickly scramble to the floor and pick my iPad up. The screen is cracked and it doesn't turn on. No. This is the only remembrance I had of my grandmother. It can't be broken! I hope it can be fixed. I quickly put everything in my bag and walk to my first class.