Damien walked around the party, red solo cup in hand. He found himself yet again at one of Jensen’s stupid parties, full of drunk, egotistical teenagers. Damien wondered around until he found his buddy Liam in the kitchen pouring himself yet another drink.

     “Hey man” Damien said with a not so enthusiastic look on his face.
     “Damn man, how goes it?” Liam asked in a drunken slur. He almost falling onto the small girl aimlessly making her way through the kitchen.
     “Sorry, he’s a little intoxicated.” Damien explained with a dash of embarrassment in his voice. The girl just stared at him with a puzzled look on her face.
     “Okay? God, dude how many of those things have you had tonight?” Damien said gesturing toward Liam's cup.
     “I don't know man. I lost count after 6.” The boys laughed and made their way to the back porch.
As Damien sat there with an inebriated Liam he couldn’t get that small confused girl out of his head. It never seized to amaze him how he had been going to school with these people for nearly 12 years, yet he barely knew any of their names.

     “Please, can we go somewhere else? I’m not going to know anyone here.” begged Addison.
     “Well then this is a great opportunity for you to get to know them.” Nora said enthusiastically.
     “Yeah, that’s right. A party full of drunk teens that wont remember my name in the morning is a great way to make new friends…” Addison stated sarcastically.
     “Come on Addi, we will only be there an hour. Please, do it for me.”
     “Fine but only an hour.”
The girls pulled up to the house and made their way inside, the smell of sweat and booze hit them like a wall.
     “You’re not gonna ditch me like you did last time right?”
Addison had a stern look on her face.
      “Oh stop being such a baby. I didn’t ditch you. Why don't you go get some drinks, I’ll wait here.”
Addison wandered around through crowds of sweaty teens trying to make her way to the kitchen. She pushed her way into the small doorway of the kitchen and almost got laid out by a random guy.
     “Sorry he’s a little intoxicated.” Explained his friend.
Addison just stared at him unsure of what to say. Social interaction has never been addison strong suit. She made her way back to Nora, unable to get the tall boy with particularly white teeth out of her head.

When Damien got to school the next day he was offly distracted, every face that he saw seemed to resemble that of the girl from the party. He stopped at his locker to pick up his english textbook for Mr.Livingston's class. He put his jacket away, picked up his books, and as he turned to walk away. There she was, the girl from the party, she was standing against the lockers with her legs crossed holding a textbook. Damien walked over to formally introduce himself.
     “Hey you were at Jenson’s party last night right?”
She didn’t answer him, she just gave him that same blank scared look she had given him the night before.
      “What’s your name?” He asked, still no answer.
She pushed herself off of the lockers and walked away. Damien was befuddled by what just happened, had he said something the night before that offended her? Damien walked to class with a thousands questions floating around in his head.

Addison dreaded going to school the next day. She always dreads going to school but today she dreaded it even more. It’s not easy being deaf at a public school, or at any school quite honestly. After, the accident in middle school her parents hired her a translator so that she could continue attending Oak Mount High School. Or at least that's what they tell people, Addison was fairly convinced that they wanted to keep her at Oak Mount because they didn’t want to have to move again. And up until now it wasn't a problem. Addison just blended into the background where no one ever noticed her, until last night that is. She got to school and waited for Nora at her locker and then she saw him. Please don’t come over here, please don't come over here, and he’s coming over here…. great… She can read his lips but without Nora here she has no way of communicating back, she just looks at him, evaluated her options, and decided to walk away.

Damien walked in and sits at the back of Mr.Livingston's english class like he always does. He puts his headphones in and tried not to think about the girl from the party. And what do you know, she walked right into Mr. Livingston's class. Damien sat up in his desk and he watched her take a seat in the front row with some other lady Damien had never seen before. She is in her Mid to late 40’s so she is obviously not a student here. Damien watched them for a few minutes, as Mr.Evanston starts class with his deadly lecture about how we will someday run this country he noticed the woman starts moving her hands around making all these weird gestures. She’s not deaf. She can’t be. Damien thought to himself, however the more he watched the more obvious it became. That’s why she never answered him, not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t. All of class Damien watched the two of them communicate without words, he found it interesting. As class started to end he packed up his things, walked over to where the two of them were sitting,
     “Hi, I’m Damien.”
Addison looks at the translator, makes a few quick movement with her hands, and the translator says
     “Hi, I’m Addison, but you can call me Addi.”