"Hey, stop looking at me like I am saying dumb shit," Baring said laughing with his head still upside down. 

Nurse Ratchet pinched his swollen ankle and he flinched. He mumbled a small sorry. Before rolling his eyes. 

"I am Daniel by the way." 

Baring must have seen my shock because he sat up and scrambled in his seat before he explained. 

"I mean yes I am Daniel but people call me Baring because well my name is Daniel Axe Baring." He did a thing with his thumb where he swiped it under his lip then with another small laugh he continued. "So what's your name?" 

Bile rose to my throat at the prospect of opening my mouth but lucky me, Nurse Ratchet was there to awkwardly let Baring know all about me. 

"His name is Josiah and he doesn't talk." 

"Shit. Sorry. I kind of don't remember much of sign language. I mean I learnt it when I was a kid for this friend of mine but. I think my name went something like this..." He awkwardly waved his hands in the air and instead of his name he was signing ‘bread’.

 

Idiot. I thought again and then a squeak escaped my lips as I tried to laugh silently. Nurse Ratchet was shocked and she looked up at me like I had found the cure for cancer and Baring looked at me like I had pulled the rug from under his feet. They made a pretty funny picture. 

The words ‘Idiot Sandwich’ floated through my mind and I lost control. I just doubled over and started laughing. Nurse ratchet and Baring looked even more lost now. And the more confused they looked the funnier the situation  got because what else is better than 1 idiot sandwich? Two idiot sandwiches. 

Nurse ratchet smiled and shook her head softly, "I guess we will never know what's funny she said. But if I have to guess it has something to do with you signing." 

Baring looked up at her confused again, "I thought you said he doesn't speak." 

"Yes, he doesn't speak. Not that he can't. And that has nothing to do with his hearing. It's perfect." 

"Oh," Baring said, looking dejected. "So you don't understand sign language then?" 

I smiled at him and signed ‘I do.’ and at that moment I wondered if it counted as doing something that scares me.  Before Baring could process what that meant I picked up my sketchbook and bolted out of the sick bay. That was enough excitement for a year. 

Nurse ratchet smiled at me as I left but I also heard her tell Baring to stay put. I smiled at my hands and wondered what the brown boy with the golden smile did in his free time. Knowing Baring it was probably idiotic. 

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. It was father letting me know that Dr Getrude had scheduled another session this week. Huh, wonder what she would say If I told her I spoke to someone. Sign language counts after all I did learn it for communication. Granted it was for other purposes and my mother was still alive when I learnt it but it is a language skill. 

I pushed my phone into my pocket and pushed through the gym doors. I made my way across the wooden floors and opened the doors that led to the school orchid, another place I loved to hideout. 

I slipped under the shed doors and over the stack of tools. Just behind it was my makeshift seat and from that seat I could see the apple trees blooming across the orchid. I sank into the old mattress and opened to a clean page. What started out as an apple tree ended up as Baring's face on an apple. And from there it all just escalated because I kept thinking of him as an Idiot sandwich. 

It was an hour and a few more pages before someone found me. Someone being Mr Anderson the school caretaker. He just granted a few words and carried his bag of fertiliser away. At that point, I figured It was time to go for my last class. Math. I had to attempt to get good grades after all.