What?

Students could've talked about anything, literally anything, any topic but one topic remained open for DAYS. The new student topic. He is in my chemistry class and art. He can't hear or talk so he has an adult everywhere with him. She explains in sign language what the professor is teaching the class. Sometimes I get caught staring at him(and I'm not) and my friends tease me all day. I'm not the stalker type of person but I've noticed him go everywhere all alone, with no friends at all. I feel sad for him. Sometimes I feel worried, maybe even concerned. I always thought that he is anti-social and doesn't want to try and communicate with others because he can't talk or hear. We figured out that he lost two of his senses when our music teacher was trying to make every sound beautiful and he was playing off-key. Poor guy.

"Mais, pourquoi are you playing off-key. Heh, why?"

*silence*

*blinks eyes*

*intensely stares at the professor with no facial expression only boredom*

*does sign language no one understands except Ana*

"Mr.Carte, I think he's saying he's deaf and mute and he got put in the wrong class," explains Ana, at least she tried to.

Since he came our class number of students became even and thank god I don't have to do projects with my ex anymore, Austin (he's such an annoying person, what did I ever feel for him! *internally screaming for being an idiot), since the teacher assigned me with Daniel, the new boy in school. We were assigned as lab partners for a mini-chemi-lab-quiz and surprisingly he wasn't as bad as I thought. We would both quietly sit and do our work and that part was fine but when it came to communication and his translator wasn't here, it was a mess. At first, I could barely understand what he was doing with his hands even though I took sign language last year I CAN'T UNDERSTAND HIM AT ALL! I could see in his eyes that he was getting annoyed at me(probably because of the faces I was making). From him trying to communicate with sign language he moved to pictures and words. That worked well for both of us but my drawing skills were not as good as his so I stuck to writing and gestures.

The second semester went by well and fairly quickly. I and Daniel understood each other pretty well. I can understand some of his hand movements(I learned some too but he moves his hands too fast so..). Sooner than later, I realized that Daniel is different from anyone I'd ever met, me included, even though in my mind when I first heard of him I pictured him the anti-social calm person.(I was right about the calm part unless you get on his bad side) He reads people like an open book and when he sees that they can't understand him, he comes up with another way of communicating. He also loves the color orange and dragon fruit. His artistic ability is unmatchable against others and is very bright, unlike some people I know. I really like Daniel, he's my best friend and we both understand each other pretty well despite our differences. He likes the color orange, and I like blue. His art skill is no match for me and let's say my grades and his grades are far from different. Sports isn't really his thing because the team players get all mad at him for not listening to them but it's not his fault. At the moment I am pretty much the best basketball player on the court. During winter break, I tried to get Daniel to play some games with me and to my surprise, he was better than I expected. In order for him to play a basketball game with me, I had to play a chess game with him. It involves an unnecessary awkward silence which he enjoyed.

The school year ended quicker than I expected and in the end, I actually could understand a bit of sign language (had to be forced into a lot of sessions unwillingly). My grades went up because I had Daniel by my side tutoring helping me with my essays, math test preparations, and other very important school subjects. I learned a lot from Daniel and he learned a lot from me. I taught him a few basketball skills and how to not be afraid to show his artistic ability to others (apparently, he kept that a secret from everybody except for me). This particular school year was fun and adventurous, kinda weird to a normal kid with all five senses. I experimented with a whole bunch of different paths of adventure. Since the first day, he came here and became my lab partner I thought we would be driven apart because we couldn't understand each other.

We are completely different people and I admire him for being so strong, and not caring about how people judge him, good or bad. He likes being Daniel, not some imaginary quiet dumb depressed kid sitting in the corner of the classroom not socializing with anyone. Daniel is far from that and he accepts people for who they are. Just like he accepts himself for being Daniel. That made me look differently at the world and his knowledge. I am proud to call myself his BEST FRIEND.

As soon as my junior year and his ended, I started planning out some ideas for summer. We both did and made a bucket list.

This summer, I and Daniel are planning to go to Los Angles and scuba dive. I've always thought about that but never tried it but he has. He explains that we could also catch some seafood while we were scuba diving. He suggested some octopus, and shrimp and maybe cook the seafood for dinner. He said that he knew a place where to look at sharks, literally SHARKS as a fun dive. My sole response was "What?".