Chapter Text
Jeremy sat at his desk, tapping his pencil incessantly. Of course, the tapping wasn’t bothering him, unlike everyone around him. Christine tapped his shoulder. ‘Hey, could you stop tapping? It’s distracting everyone.’ she signed. Jeremy’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ He signed back, mouthing the words as well. He set the pencil on the top of the notebook and made sure his camera was still recording the board. He couldn’t look down to write anything in his notes, so he recorded the lessons and looked back at them to get his notes written.
Soulmates were a common occurrence in his world. Everyone had one, whether romantic or platonic. Sometimes even siblings were each other’s soulmates. Each half of a soulmate had disabilities that were the opposite of each other. For example, Christine’s left index finger was always moving, while her platonic soulmate, Jenna, couldn’t move that finger at all. When they touched each other, their disabilities were healed.
Most of the flaws were small things. Some were more inconvenient than others, but none would alter day to day life too much. Except Jeremy. They found nothing physically wrong with his ears when he was born, which meant it was his soulmate bond, but it was way too extreme. He had been completely and utterly deaf since birth.
What even was the opposite of deaf? Hearing too much? Jeremy didn’t have much hope for finding his soulmate, and he had accepted his fate. Christine had never minded, and her brother became mute after an accident with a bike, so she already knew sign language. It was nice to have someone that didn’t treat you any differently.
The teacher suddenly said something and everyone perked up. Jeremy turned to Christine and tapped her to get her attention.
‘What did he say?’
‘There’s a new student moving in!’ Jeremy sat up in interest. Heads turned to the door when it opened, and a young man stepped in. He had tan skin and was wearing a hoodie with a bunch of logos he didn’t understand, and a pride flag on the shoulder. There was also an Apocalypse of the Damned patch in the bottom left of the hoodie, by the pocket. He had a black lab on a firm handled leash, and had dark shades over his eyes. The dog led him to the front of the room, and the teacher put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. He jumped slightly, not expecting it.
“Okay class, this is Michael Mell. He’s new here, and I expect you to treat him well. If you see him on his phone, or hear him talking to Siri, he’s just recording the lectures because he’s blind. Any questions?” Christine signed what he said back to Jeremy.
Jeremy’s heart leapt. ‘Do you think it’s his soulmate disability?’ He may have finally found someone who he could relate to! ‘I mean, it’s a high probability!” Christine replied. Next thing Jeremy knew, something brushed his arm and he jumped. The new Michael boy had sat next to him.
Jeremy tapped his shoulder and began signing at him. Then he realized that Michael couldn’t see the signs.
“Oh, let me interpret!” Christine said, spoken for Michael, and signed along for Jeremy. She focused on Michael. “Hi! My friend here is Jeremy, and he’s deaf, so I’m going to interpret so he can talk to you!”
“Oh, okay.” Michael said. Jeremy understood him, as those words were fairly easy to lip read.
‘I like your dog.’ Jeremy signed. Christine relayed it.
“Thanks!” He said. The big smile on his face gave Jeremy all the context he needed. His face flushed, and he was really glad Michael couldn’t see his face.
‘You play AOTD? If you don’t mind me asking, how?’
“Oh, my moms play it and narrate what’s happening to me on screen. It’s easy to follow and the soundtrack’s great, so I asked them to get a patch for me.” He said.
‘Cool.’
“Yeah, I think so.” Just then, Michael looked off to the side of the room. Christine got his attention and told him someone called for him.
‘Uh, wait!’ Jeremy hurriedly said, grabbing Michael’s wrist. He wanted to get his number.
Then everything was exploding. Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ears with his hands, whimpering to himself. Loudloudloudloudloudloudloud — Christine tapped “I’m here” on his shoulder in Morse code. They had a few words and phrases for fun in fourth grade.
Jeremy felt like his head was splitting open.
~•~Christine’s POV~•~
Jeremy reached out to grab Michael’s wrist, but the second they touched, Jeremy squatted down onto the floor and pressed his hands over his ears, whimpering. Michael started moving his head every which way, seeming to focus on things that Christine knew he couldn’t, considering his lack of sight.
“Jeremy?” She knelt down to his level. When she spoke, he flinched. He heard her. She tapped on his shoulder, hopefully helping to ground him. ‘Turn around and look at me.’ She tapped. He turned and looked at her with wide eyes, his hands still over his ears.
‘Can you hear?’ She signed. Jeremy slowly took his hands off his ears and winced before signing back. ‘I think so? I’ve never heard before.’ Christine froze. Does that mean...?
“Michael?” She said, looking to the standing boy. He turned and stared directly at her.
“Christine?” He cautiously asked.
“Yeah.” She replied. “Can you see?”
“Um, yeah, but it seems kind of off.” He admitted.
“How?”
“Everything’s... uh... how would you describe it... fuzzy?”
“Oh!” Christine snapped her fingers, making Jeremy flinch again. “I bet you need glasses! If you get those and wear em, you’ll be able to see clearly!”
“Oh. Huh.” Michael said, sounding satisfied.
“Hey, Jeremy, are you okay?” It felt weird to be talking to him. He looked at her, confused, tilted his head, and pointed to himself questioningly. Then Christine realized that Jeremy probably couldn’t understand any of the words that any of them had been saying. He didn’t know what they sounded like. She decided to sign instead.
‘You can’t understand what we’re saying, right?’
‘No’ Jeremy looked really disappointed.
‘Then we’ll have to teach you!’ Christine enthusiastically signed.
‘We?’
“Michael and I!” She said out loud, pointed to him, then herself. Michael looked at her quizzically. “And we’re going to teach Michael how to read ASL and to read too!” She signed and said.
Michael sighed. “Oh yeah, I can’t read.” He huffed. “That’s probably going to be important.” Then Christine realized that every single person in their class was staring at them, shocked.
“Oh, um... nothing to see here!” She said to all of them. “I’m just going to, uh...” she grabbed Jeremy and yanked him to his feet, then grabbed Michael’s forearm and started dragging them to the door. “I’m just going to go.” Mr. Wise didn’t even try to stop them.