Episode: 3.12

--- Nadya ---

Nadya looked the party over. She and Des had managed to convince almost thirty people to come to Rai’s party. Five times the number who usually came, and hopefully enough to let them mix things up a little for the coming year.

Her eyes drifted around the party trying to spot the birthday boy. He’d been acting weird for the last week or so, and it was starting to worry her a bit.

She shook her head.

(It’s nothing to worry about, he’s probably just nervous.)

Usually when Rai started acting off it was because he was planning to confess to her, something that was more than easy enough for her to pick up on after the last two years of him making all sorts of elaborate plans to ask her out only to back out at the last second.

(I mean, it’s not like I’ll say no…)

She smiled as a thought occurred to her.

(Hell, it wouldn’t even change anything all that much between us…)

Her smile faded as she thought of all the other times, she’d gotten her hopes up about him confessing, only to have said hopes shattered.

But that wouldn’t stop her, because despite what most people thought of her, she could be patient when she wanted to, and for Rai… she wanted to.

She sighed before giving the room another once over, because truth be told, she didn’t feel like talking to anyone new, at least not until she’d made sure Rai was okay, and even then, she really wasn’t one for this many people.

Personally, she only wanted a few new people, Des was the one who went overboard inviting the absolute limit of what he could get away with, before Rai would snap at him. His anti-social tendencies only giving so much in the way of friendship.

She felt a little guilty for hijacking Rai’s birthday, for her and Des’s purposes, but given how his parties usually went, this one would memorable at the very least.

(Really am glad we chose to do this at Rai’s, doubt even half these people could fit in my family’s trailer…)

She paused in her thoughts as she caught sight of Mama Morales welcoming a familiar brown-haired girl in a white button up blouse and black skirt, in through the front door.

“Clara!” She rushed forward, side-stepping Mama Morales as she took the other girl into a hug.

A giggle escaped the brunette as she was lifted a few inches off the ground.

“How’ve you been?” Nadya laughed taking a step back from her second oldest friend.

Clara made a few gestures with her hands, that roughly translated to: (I’ve been good how about you?)

“Same old same old.” She admitted, “Des being an idiot, Rai being a sarcastic wuss, and me being the-”

("the violent anarchist?") Clara signed quick enough to cut her off.

“I am not an anarchist,” she snorted, “I’m a free thinker and a leader.”

Clara rolled her eyes, ("Sure you are.")

“Don’t sign with those sassy hands.” She scolded, despite a light tugging at the sides of her mouth.

There was a slight cough to her side, drawing her attention to a blonde girl dressed in a green cardigan over a white shirt and jeans. The same blonde girl she hadn’t noticed Mama Morales talking to during her and Clara’s little reunion.

“Oh… He-hey there.” She waved more than a little awkwardly.

“Hello.” The girl nodded with a light grin.

("Oh, I almost forgot,") Clara made an ‘o’ with her mouth before gesturing to her side as she signed, ("This is my friend, Charlotte.")

Nadya nodded before signing, “It’s uh, nice to meet you.” as she spoke, knowing that while Clara could read her lips, it was harder for people to lip read someone they didn’t know all that well since it was harder to fill in the blanks or gain context.

“You too.” The blonde girl nodded, her speech surprisingly good for someone who was deaf, and-

(Damn it.)

She couldn’t help but wince and hope she wasn’t blushing as she realized, just because she’s Clara’s friend didn’t mean they’d both be deaf.

(I’m really not good with people…)

“You girls need anything before I go?” Mama Morales both signed and asked, with an amused look.

(A conversational cheat sheet?)

“No.” she lied, as the other two shook their heads.

“Alright, well just call if you do.” Mama Morales nodded, before pulling Clara into a half-hug, “And it’s good to see you again miha.”

“You. T-oo. Ma-ma. Mo’al-ez.” Clara spoke aloud, something she rarely did.

(It’s good to see Clara trying to speak again after all the trouble those kids gave her…)

Mama Morales smiled as wide as the sun. “You’re getting so much better at that Clara.” She pulled Clara close once more to kiss the top of her head, “At the rate you’re going. pretty soon you’ll be talking circles around even Raimundo.”

(Then again Mama Morales has always been the exception to that kind of rule…)

She couldn’t help but smile at that thought, or the memories it brought up from when the Morales first adopted Rai, or took Des, Clara, and her on as their surrogate kids.

(Well… she’s Mama Morales for a reason…)

Once Mama Morales had left the room and returned to the kitchen she glanced back to her old friend, and her old friend’s new friend, before coughing into her hand to try and get their attention, something she realized as pointless when she remembered Clara was deaf, and given the way her friend didn’t react…

(Okay, so, she probably is deaf after all…)

“So…” she waved her hand to catch their attention, before using hand signs as she spoke, “How long have you known each other?”

“Oh um,” Charlotte paused, staring at her hands, as if trying to figure out the next sign, something Nadya remembered doing a lot back when Rai and Clara first taught her how to sign, “I was in an accident a while back, it um, screwed up my hearing… It took me a bit, before I started going to… our school, and we’ve been hanging out since around then.”

“That’s uh… that’s nice.” She nodded awkwardly, before glancing at Clara for assistance, since she herself wasn’t really sure how to talk about someone’s recent loss of hearing.

It was something she hadn’t needed to go through back when she first met Clara, given how they were like ten at the time, and Clara had been born deaf, they’d never talked about it beyond, ‘Hey, I was born deaf.’ and ‘That’s cool, can you teach me sign language.’

(God, does making friends just get more awkward the older you get?)

She shook her head a little, pushing away that thought, before focusing back on the conversation.

“And um, how’s the new school going for you?” she asked, a little glad they couldn’t hear her more than awkward tone, “I mean it’s got to be a rough adjustment, making such a big change.”

“Yeah, it’s uh, it’s been a bit of an adjustment,” Charlotte admitted, both her hands and voice stumbling as she said it, “but the, the classes are definitely helping with… everything in the long run.”

“That’s good.” She nodded again, this time a little more sincerly.

Charlotte smiled almost as if finding her awkwardness funny, before freezing as she caught sight of something behind Nadya, “Cal?”

She blinked, before looking over her shoulder and catching sight of Raimundo entering the house. Part of her wanted to run up to him and make sure he was alright, but another part remembered her new acquittances odd reaction.

Her eyes drifted between Charlotte and Rai, before glancing at Clara who shrugged with a puzzled frown, not really understanding what was going on in her friend’s head.

She gave Rai one last glance before turning back to the other girl, “Is something wrong?”

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed, “No… it’s…” she shook her head, “He just looks like someone I know…”

“Really?” she prodded, trying to find out why the girl was having such a stunned reaction.

“It’s the um, it’s the eyes…” the other girl explained, no longer signing out her words, “you don’t see silver eyes all that often…”

She blinked, before looking back to Rai as he talked with his parents about something, her eyes focusing on his to see that, yes, his eyes could be seen as silver.

(But that doesn’t really explain her reaction…)

(I mean it is a pretty shade but it’s not that…)

She paused.

(Huh…)

Now that she thought about it, he was the only person she knew with that shade of eyes, though she never gave it much thought since she’d always thought his eyes were more of a really pale blue, than a sinister silver…

(Sinister silver?)

She couldn’t help but frown at that thought, as something she couldn’t quite remember began to claw at the back of her mind.