Beau was the only hearing boy at this school who’d taken the initiative to even learn a few signs to try to talk to me. He wasn’t fluent in ASL by any means, but I’d felt more of a connection with him out there in the hallway, signing and eating cookies, than with any of the Deaf boys I’d met back at Pratt.

And after that talk we just had, I did not think I could ignore that fact any longer. The hearing boy with all his books, the one destined for Yale, seemed just as vulnerable and scared as I felt most of the time at this school.

I sat upright when I saw a pair of bare feet heading my way and was relieved to see it was Nina walking up.

OK? she signed, looking concerned.

FINE, I replied.

“Where’s Beau?” she said, looking around.

DON’T KNOW, I signed with a shrug.

Nina gave up with a shrug too and said, “You want . . . dance?”

“Sure,” I said, suddenly feeling like I had nothing to lose. “Let’s dance.”

I let Nina pull me out onto the dance floor. Despite my earlier hesitation, it only took a few moments before I got lost in the beat I couldn’t hear and let go.

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Beau must’ve said something to Jackson after our little run-in out in the hallway Saturday night. That Monday after homecoming I didn’t feel Jackson’s noticeable stare during AP US History, and he didn’t once glance my way during lunch. It came as a relief, but I was also stupidly curious, wondering if Beau had played up the leave the poor Deaf girl alone angle.

I’d immediately pegged that thought as dumb the second it flitted across my mind. Even if I still had a laundry list of questions about him, there was no getting around the fact that Beau was just a genuinely nice guy.

I could have spent a lot more time contemplating the mysteries still surrounding Beau, but with midterms the following week and that homecoming incident, my conversation with Beau had to be forcibly shoved to the back of my mind.

With our presentation just on the horizon, Nina and I spent every spare moment in the library doing research and practicing our speech. We’d decided to present on a major event from the twentieth century . . . but not one that was in the history book. Deaf President Now—or DPN—was a huge turning point for the Deaf community back in the 1980s. DPN was a student-lead protest at Gallaudet University (the first all-inclusive university in the United States for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing) where they’d protested the appointment of yet another hearing president who didn’t even know sign language.