“What’s all this?” I asked, holding tight to the door handle. I was torn between gratefulness that I had such awesome friends and embarrassment over being the center of attention. Especially since I was still wearing sweats, an oversized baseball T-shirt, and hadn’t showered yet.

“Come on . . . just . . . two . . .” Nina said, nodding at Beau. “. . . brother . . . have fun!”

Connor was already off the couch and standing next to me in the doorway, eyeing the balloon Nina had wrapped around her wrist. Mom joined us next, putting a hand to my shoulder, signing, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, when I looked at her.

FUN, Mom signed, doing that thing where she wiggled her eyebrows to make me laugh.

Yeah, my mother was so in on this whole thing.

“Mother, I am in my pajamas!”

“So?” Mom said with a shrug, then pointed to the stairs. “Go change.”

ONE SECOND, I signed to Mom as Beau took the pizzas into the dining room and Nina gave Connor the balloon.

I sprinted up the stairs to my bedroom and threw on the first pair of jeans and clean T-shirt I could get my hands on. I yanked a brush through my knotted hair and pulled it up into something resembling a ponytail, then got my hearing aids in and ran back downstairs.

Everyone was gathered around the dining table with the pizza, the handful of presents, and a small cake with blue frosting and sprinkles. I got another round of them signing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me and somehow I managed to respond with a feeble, THANK YOU.

In the grand scheme of things, I guessed letting Nina have her fun with this was the least I could do. She was the first hearing friend I’d made at Engelmann, and it was hard not to think that I would always be thankful for her.

Connor sat with us at the table while we grabbed slices of pizza, but he got bored pretty quickly with the conversation and went back to the cartoons in the living room. Mom seemed the happiest I’d seen her in a while, talking and signing with Beau and Nina, and I started to think that maybe this whole thing wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

I got through two slices of pepperoni with extra cheese before I gave into the laughter. Watching Beau attempt to sign and eat at the same time was far more amusing to me than it should have been.

“How do . . . sign with . . . hand?” Beau asked with a deep scowl. “When . . . eat?”

After a while signing and eating at the same time became second nature to Deaf people.

I bit down on my lip to smother the giggles, but I think one or two escaped. “Practice.”