Erin woke up Monday morning in an unfamiliar bedroom, until he remembered. This was his new room in his father's house. Erin hated living with his father but he didn't have any other family members. All his grandparents were dead or out of country, both his parents were only children. The courts sided with his father since Erin admitted that his father was never abusive towards him and so he had no reason to not live with the man. Nathan Eyler refused to accept his son as his son, only addressing him as his dead name and using girls' pronouns despite Erin's mother having legally changed his name to Erin Laemar, using her maiden name. Erin had come out to his parents ,Nathan and Janice, as trans and pansexual when he was 13 and they had gotten divorced when he was 15. The two parents had been drifting apart for years and the coming out was the last straw for Helena. Erin's mother could not stand how her husband was acting and divorced him as quickly as she could. Nathan still got to see his son for a few days out of each month and Erin hated it. Erin was happy with his mother, she got his name changed the week of his sixteenth birthday and he's been on testosterone for three months now. Erin's father was pissed to say the least, but legally there was nothing he could do. So when it came time to enrolling Erin into New Rye high school, all the attendance sheets say Erin Laemar.
Erin started his morning routine, binder first, clothes second, then hair and teeth. He grabbed his glasses and put in his piercing before heading out of his room to the kitchen. Nathan hadn't woken up yet so Erin could eat some of the leftover donuts without argument. Erin looked and saw a small wrapped gift on the table. Erin rolled his eyes at his father's attempts at being kind. Sure, Nathan loved his child and bought him things when asked, but he was constantly tearing Erin down and telling him he'd "regret becoming a boy" and that "he was so pretty as a girl". Nathan was obsessed with this image of a perfect daughter, he was disappointed that his only child was transgender and pan on top of that. Erin opened the small box and noticed that it was a clean, new copy of ,The adventures of Vorria, a fantasy book about Orcs. Erin sighed and left a thank you note for his father, he would at least try to be civil.
Kye Thomas woke up to his mother,Isabel, shaking him and smiling her bright smile. Her dark brown ringlets of hair hung in Kye's face as she leaned over him to wake him up. Kye groaned and rolls over as she walked away from the bed. Kye couldn't hear her but he knew she was doing the same thing she did every morning, making her way to the kitchen while Kye slowly rolled out of bed.
"don't forget your umbrella today. it's pouring." Isabel signed to her son as he went to close his door.
"Yeah mama.," He answers verbally.
Kye has some issues talking but he's in speech therapy for it. He's not entirely deaf like some people think. Everything sounds muffled and there's always a ringing in his ears which makes it extremely hard to understand what people are saying. When he wears his hearing aids the ringing stops and he can hear just fine, for the most part. Some sounds are too quiet, like birds chirping or whispering. Without his hearing aids he can hear anything between 85-140 decibels, while with them he can hear 50-140.
Kye walked out of his room with his backpack on and his hearing aids in their protective case, in his pocket. Isabel was standing in the kitchen waiting for her son.
"Did you grab your umbrella?" Kye shows her the umbrella "You don't want to miss the bus." She ushers him out the door.
Kye hurries to the bus stop and stands under his umbrella waiting.
The bus finally pulled up after fifteen minutes. Kye climbed onto the bus and started making his way to the back, when he noticed a new face, sitting in his usual seat. well fuck, he thought to himself as he took the seat next to the new person and shot a look their way. The teen in the one person seat was a feminine looking boy, about 17. The wavy brown hair that sat on his head was cut off at shaved sides. A ring pierced his lip and his glasses sat on his nose as he read his book. Kye put in his hearing aids so he could hear the new boy.
"Hey, what book are you reading?" no answer"Hey." He says again, still nothing.
"What are you, fucking deaf?" Kye says jokingly, that got a response.
"No, I'm not deaf. My eyes may be bad but my ears are just fine." He closes his book and turns to face Kye. "Most people would have stopped trying to talk to me after the second time of me ignoring them." He continued Kye looks at the new kid and suddenly asks.
"How old are you?"
The other boy looked appalled.
"What kind of question is that?! You don't even know my name."
"Ok, so what's your name?"
the other teen rolled his eyes and sighed.
"It's Erin." The other says crossing his arms. "I'm 17."
Kye raises one eye brow.
"I'm Kye, I'm 18. I am a junior because I started school later than most, I'm actually deaf."
He sticks his hand out for a handshake but doesn't get the same gesture from the other boy. Erin returns to his book and Kye frowns.
"Just wanted to be your friend, but if you're gonna be a dick never mind."
Kye turns back to face the front and ignores the side glare that Erin sent his way.
Kye got off the bus and saw his friend Finley waiting under the awning out of the rain
"Good morning loser." Finley signed with a grin.
"Good morning Finn." Kye signed as Erin slowly walked towards the two, last off the bus.
Erin watched the two sign at each other.
"There was this new kid on the bus. He was kind of a jerk, he said his name was Erin."
Erin frowned and walked up to Kye, tapping him on the shoulder.
"I would appreciate if you didn't talk about me with your friend here." Erin signed and watched as Kye stared.
"You know sign?" Kye said verbally, putting his hearing aids back in.
"Yes, my mother worked with deaf kids at a daycare, she took ASL in college. She taught me and I learned on my own. I'm basically fluent, but that's not why I came over here. I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about me behind my back."
"Yeah, sorry. I won't talk about you anymore." Kye said with a lopsided grin.
"Do you want to sit with us at breakfast?" Finley said and Kye shot him a look.
"No thank you, I'm going to walk around the school and learn where the library is. Maybe next time." Erin left the two alone.
Erin made his way through his first four classes without any issues. Kye was in two of those classes and insisted on talking to him whenever possible. Erin tried to be polite the first class and casually talked with the deaf boy in sign language. When it came to the second class they had together Erin was less annoyed, he didn't consider the other boy his friend but he could talk to him and not be a jerk. Kye didn't know why, but he was determined to get the new kid to like him. The few times he got the other to even show a small hint of a smile, his heart grew with pride and he wanted to see him fully smile.
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