The Sound of Silence

By M. S. West

What can a high school prima donna and a deaf boy possibility have in common? On the face of it nothing, especially when the boy in question is the school outcast who is being consistently bullied, while she is untouchable. Yet fate being as fickle as it is, has decided to intervene. Needless to say, when fate gets involved things happen, be it a phenomenal disaster that can ruin an otherwise content life or an even greater love that allows the impossible to happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WSIC EBooks Ltd.
• Release date: Dec 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781927526705

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The Sound of Silence

By: M. S. West

Published by WSIC EBooks Ltd.

Copyright December 2, 2013 by WSIC EBooks Ltd.

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter One

Jefferson High School is no different than any other North American high school. Probably no different than any other located throughout the world. It has the same cliques of students that every high school has. There are the jocks, the skaters, the brainy, the preps and most certainly the outcast. Every school has an outcast, the one that does not fit in anywhere else and the one that becomes the object of everyone’s displeasure.

In Jefferson High the outcast is a good-looking muscular, sandy-haired boy by the name of Mitch. Just looking at him you would never believe that the all-American looking boy is an outcast. The very thought of it would simply not be conceivable. Not until he tries to speak would the idea even germinate that the boy is not like every other boy. It is not even his speech that makes him such an outcast, though it certainly does not help his cause. What makes him an outcast and that which delights those who decide it is their turn to torment him is the fact that he is deaf, totally and completely deaf. His tormentors delight in the fact that he cannot hear them and the filth that spews out of their mouths as they torment him is truly unbelievable.

In some ways it would have been better if Mitch had been born deaf for then he would never had learned to talk, but for Mitch that was not to be. Five years ago, Mitch was as normal as any other American boy; he laughed and played, heard and talked like any other. It was not until his parents took him on a trip to Puerto Vallarta, where they had been caught in the middle of a restaurant bombing that he went deaf. That blast had burst his eardrums and left his mother dead; a death that he still mourns to this day.

Mitch was eleven years old when that blast took his hearing, though it was the lost of his mother that hit him the hardest. He took the lost of his mother like any eleven-year old and for the longest time, angry at the world and his father for not protecting his mother, he had withdrawn into himself. The special school that his father had enrolled him into helped, but to this day that feeling of lost is a shadow that haunts him.

The school for the deaf that his father had enrolled him into was a good school. At that school everybody understood him. There he was just another student. There he learned how to sign and gotten good at reading lips. However, this year his father had decided that Mitch needed to get back into the real world to prepare him for life after school. Hence, his enrolment into Jefferson High, a school that Mitch has learned to hate with a passion.

Being a bright boy, Mitch did okay when it came to the school curriculum. He was by no means at the top of the class, however that had nothing to do with his understanding of the subject matter. What kept him from getting better grades is the fact that he had to work twice as hard as anybody else to get through the subject matter in the first place. His lip reading allowed him to pick up a lot of the lessons that his teachers were teaching, however they tended to forget that he needed to be able to see their lips to be able to read them so he had started recording his lessons. These he would take home, whereas every night he would use a computer program that would convert the spoken words to sign language. It made for long days and long nights, but it managed to keep him up with the rest of the class.

Therefore, it was not the classes that made him hate this school it was the other students. When he is being tormented, the hatred for this school and everything associated with it threatens to explode, much like the bomb that took his hearing.

Maybe things would not have been so bad for Mitch if he didn’t refuse to fight back. If he would have, maybe even once that may well have ended his tormenting. However, the one time he had allowed his anger to take hold of him the boy that had been bullying him had ended up in the hospital. That was two years ago and that was the last time he defended himself with his fist. Thus, when he is being tormented as he is being now he has resorted to taking the beating and trying to talk sense into his tormentor, little knowing that he is bellowing like a bull, or that his bellowing only eggs his tormentors on to do their worse.

On this day, Jake, the high school quarterback hero is really giving it to him. It is one of those rare times when there is not a teacher in sight and Mitch is already certain that tomorrow he will be sporting a nice shiner. Worse yet, he knows that Jake is not even close to finish with him and that by the time he is, he is going to have much more than a black eye to explain to his father.

Chapter Two

Jefferson High does have something rarely found in most high schools. Her name is Anik and what is different about her is, well everything. Like Mitch she does not fit into any one clique, but unlike Mitch, nobody would dare to treat her with anything but the up-most respect. The reason for that respect has nothing to do with the fact that Anik is as beautiful as a pop star should be, though it certainly does not hurt for she is not only beautiful beyond words, but she could very well be a pop star if she ever desired to be. She has the voice, the charisma and an uncanny ability to write music. Every student in Jefferson High is certain that she will become a superstar some day, and as she is theirs right now, they take advantage of it.

As it is, Anik and her band are hounded to play at all the school functions as well as many private functions for any of the cliques willing to hire her. She is the highlight of the half-time shows, the drawing event for charity drives, the music and songs behind the stage shows. Any event that she can be useful for, she is certain to be there and regardless of who she plays for she gives them what they want, be it country, rock and roll, or something in between.

As such, nobody risks the chance of treating her disrespectfully for doing so has been known to lose that person and his clique the voice of the angel that the school and students alike want continued access to.

In life, there is often a moment that defines a person. For some it may happen as early as birth, for others not until their death. For Anik it becomes this day and at this very moment. Maybe this defining moment has something to do with waking up bitchy this morning, or maybe it was discovering that her father had lost his job, again, or maybe just because of the piss poor day she had just spent in school acting the part that the student body insists that she be.

As it is, Anik is mostly happy with the path her life is taking. She is happy writing her music and unlike most students her age she has a plan laid out for her future. Nowhere in that plan is there room for a deaf boy. As such, she can’t even comprehend why she does what she does this day when she sees Mitch being tormented. He has been tormented since the beginning of the school year so today is not unlike any other day. What is he to her goals? Nothing. What is he to her ultimate success? Nothing. So why today of all days does she take an exception to the way Mitch is being treated is beyond her, but take exception she does.

Leave him alone you jerks! The voice that had long ago been trained to be heard even in the midst of the wildest parties rings loud and clear throughout the hallway, making every head turn.

The chuckling stops, and all except the bull like voice of Mitch becomes silence. Jake, who just happens to be the poor unfortunate soul bearing the brunt of Anik’s displeasure opens his mouth to object to her intervention.

Don’t! Don’t even think about it or you will be playing patty cakes during your next half-time to keep the crowds entertained. Anik shoots back before Jake has a chance to say anything.

Jake isn’t the smartest cookie in Jefferson High, but he is far from stupid. He may be the school’s quarterback hero, however Anik is right, he has no intention of losing her as the football team’s half-time show so he snaps his mouth shut.

You be quiet. Anik states to Mitch, while poking him in the chest to make sure he knows she is talking to him. As for the rest of you, you’ve had your fun so get lost.

Mitch has no idea what is going on, but the wide-eyed looks that the other students are giving Anik tells him that something has changed. Some kind of unwritten rule has been broken and he is certain that the prima donna poking him in the chest has a lot to do with it. Therefore, like the others his mouth slams shut and now full silence descends upon the hall.

Having total silence, Jake almost takes opportunity of the fact that Anik and he use to date. He opens his mouth once to say something, however his brain catches up to his mouth so he slams it shut again. He gives his recent