I took a seat at the table beside Nina, across from Beau and thankfully away from Jackson. I unwrapped my sandwich and took a bite, doing all I could to ignore the eyes fixed on me. Nina mentioned she and Beau were on the student council, so it wasn’t a stretch to figure out the rest of the people at this table fell into the same category.

Nina placed a hand on my shoulder for my attention, and I watched her introduce me to everyone saying, “This . . . Maya. She just moved . . . New Jersey.”

I gave a small wave as some people presumably said hello and quickly returned to my sandwich. I had this bad habit of eating super-fast when I was nervous, and at my current pace I was going to finish my sandwich in under a minute, tops.

I gave a start when Nina nudged me with her elbow, and when I looked over at her she nodded toward Jackson. He was leaning toward me across the table, two seats down from Beau, and he was talking to me, fast and with no breath in between.

It could’ve been because I was already exhausted from lipreading, trying to remain alert, and overly paranoid that people were talking about me behind my back that I spoke, because it was the quickest way of getting my point across.

“I’m assuming Nina told you I’m Deaf, right?”

I saw Beau’s eyes widen, and I could tell the next words out of his mouth were, “You can talk?”

And in that split second after Beau said those words, my mood went from uneasy and unsure to pissed off.

“Of course I can talk! A lot of Deaf are oral, but it’s our choice whether we want to use our voices,” I told Beau, my glare fierce. “Just because I choose not to talk doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I’m not stupid or anything, you know. I’m just as capable as you are.”

I was angry at that unbelievably thoughtless comment, but lurking on the periphery was the fear that my voice sounded so bad and was somehow so surprising it caught Beau off guard.

Beau started to say what I was sure was going to be some lame excuse, but Jackson started tapping on the table in front of me, wanting my attention again. When I turned my glare on him, he seemed oblivious to my anger, saying, “If you . . . talk, why do . . . sign language?”

“Why don’t you use sign language?” I snapped at him.