Note:[u]..[/u] means that the sentence is underlined. It means that the person is using Sign Language.

Chapter 4: Jinx

"I'm hoooome!" I called out, kicking my flip-flops next to the door, and onto a pile of other shoes. I heard feet pounding on the hardwood floors as two kids came running around the corner.

The two girls stopped in front of me and their hands flew as their muffled voices spoke, "He'o Jinx. Haw wa' school today?"

I used my hands to respond because they couldn't hear me and they didn't know how to lip-read. "[u]Today was good. I think I made a new friend. How was your day at school?[/u]"

The older of the two, ten-year old Quiara, signed first. "[u]The teacher was helping me learn to talk more. She put my hand on her neck while she said something and then I had to make my neck feel the same way while I talked.[/u]"

"[u]Cool.[/u]" I said.

Then 6-year old Mary started clumsily signing, excited. "[u]My class got to play drums today. We couldn't hear the sounds but we were able to feel them and it was cool![/u]"

"[u]That's great.[/u]" I said. The two girs slightly jumped as a device clipped to their waists started to lightly buzz. I followed them, dropping my backpack on a living room chair, as they made their way to the "meeting room". More footsteps were heard on the floor above us and on the stairs as the other kids made their way down. "Hey mom. Hey dad." I greeted as I got to the room.

"Hey." they chorused back. My mom stood in front of a board which had a large chart on it. My dad sat at the desk, which had the control panel for the buzzers. It was a system my parents came up with so that they can call down certain kids (since we're the only three who can hear and talk. One of the kids, Crevan, can hear, but he's mute.) Each button had a kid's name on it. Press it and their device buzzed, like a pager. If any of the kids were hurt or in trouble, they pushed a button on their device and under their name, a red light went off and it rang, to let us know when someone needed us.

You see, I'm an only child. However, my parents both went to college for American Sign Language and they wanted to do something with it. So they became a foster home for deaf and/or mute kids. None of them are adopted, but because they're well taken care of and my parents are so well equipped to take care of them, the social workers keep them here for so long. There's no need to move them.

I looked around the room, observing all the kids as my mom read (and signed) off the chart, the chore chart. The youngest here was Mary, at six years old, with straight blond hair and big blue eyes. Then were dark-haired, dark-eyed, Puerto Rican Quiara, and red-haired, elfish-featured Crevan, both at ten. There were twins, Aidan and Amber, at fourteen. They both had thick brown hair and green eyes. Lastly, was Mr. Tall-Dark-and Handsome, Seth, at sixteen. Oh, and me at seventeen. Mary and Quiara were profoundly deaf but still had speech. Crevan was mute but could hear. Seth was profoundly deaf and mute. Aidan was severly deaf but had speech while Amber was blind. He was her eyes while she was his ears. And that was the break-down of our happy little family.

My mom finished reading who had what and dismissed us to go do our homework and the chores we were given. Yay.