Can't you hear me now?

Chapter 1

Penny Massey is a young fifteen-year-old girl she has long straight as a board plain brown hair that lands at her hips, but has eyes that are crystal clear green, her eyes like looking at sunlight through green glass. This makes up for her dull hair. She has a twin brother, Jacob Massey. He also has brown hair which he keeps short like a military cut. He also has the same crystal-clear green eyes Penny has. They have remarkably similar features as well. Jacob is over six feet tall while Penny is only 5'7" which tends to be an average height. Both have thin athletic bodies. Other than the difference in height they share the same small nose and thin face, lightly tanned skin and eye shape which are wide and bright.

Penny and Jacob were born and left abandoned in a small town almost sixteen years ago. They were found in a basket covered in a man's flannel shirt, near a Massey Pizza restaurant. They don't know much about their past, just that they were left with a note saying:

'Please keep my boy and girl together, they are twins, I named them Penny and Jacob'.

They also know that their last name came from where they were found, in the news they were labeled the Massey twins. No one came forward to claim the twins. They grew up moving from one home to another, they never stayed long in a foster home. Not because they were bad kids, they kept quiet and mostly to themselves. See Penny was born unable to speak, but this was not discovered until she was nearly ten years old. By the age of three the twins had already been in three different homes. On the fourth home they were with an abusive older woman, she used to beat Penny for not talking when spoken too. The old woman would say it's rude to not speak when spoken to and Jacob would get in trouble for trying to stop her, even at three Jacob could speak very well and he was very smart. He would yell at the old woman for hurting his twin. But this only earned Jacob his own beatings.

He tried to tell the old women his sister couldn't talk but the old woman never believed him, no one would. Penny would yell out silent screams, nothing would come out but air, and tears. But Jacob could hear her screams in his head, he could hear her voice she would sob and tell Jacob to tell the woman to stop, it hurt so much. They would get beatings with a long switch that Jacob would have to get from a tree in the back yard. He hated having to get the weapon that would be used on his defenseless little sister and himself. They used to get beat several times each week and Jacob would have to get a new switch when the current one would break from overuse. The abuse also went as far verbal and physical abuse, also missing meals and being locked in their separate rooms. But Jacob would talk to his sister in his mind to keep her calm and help her feel better.

Jacob and Penny spent five years with the old women till she died, she was old after all, and her body wore out. The twins were thankful for her death they were sad to move again but at least they would no longer receive beatings from her. Jacob protected his sister as well as he could during the five years with the old woman. As they aged, he would tell his sister he would always protect her and take care of her, no matter what home they were sent to. The state then became involved with their care again after the old woman died and were moved to several more homes over the next few years. Jacob would always talk for his sister and most family's that took them in would think Penny was a mental case and that the twins were so close that Jacob talked for her, the state of Ohio then sent her to an ENT (ear nose and throat) doctor to find out is she really could not talk or not. She was ten when everyone finally found out. Turns out Penny does not have vocal cords at all. It was a birth defect. Where Penny had no voice Jacob was gifted with speech at an early age, He was talking full sentences at the age of one, with complete comprehension, which is how he was able to verbally defend his sister toward the old lady.

Penny was very smart and did well in school when they were sent. She was a strait A student as well as Jacob. The teachers just gave up calling on her and would pare the twins together. They had no friends, they were each other's friends, and kids would stare at Penny because when someone new would talk to her she would just walk away. She gave up trying to communicate with anyone other than Jacob. It was too hard and left her feeling sadder and more left out. Her brother would speak for her and that made people uncomfortable. But the twin did not care. They had each other.

There was a time when they did try to teach Penny sign language, but she didn't care to learn, it was easier for her to just talk to her brother, she didn't need anyone else. She did start to use hand gestures when communicating with her foster parents, especially if Jacob was not in the same room. Since she had no outside friends, she just thought it was best to not get her hopes up. Penny was very shy. The twins would talk to each other all the time; they had long conversations in each other's minds. Jacob always knew what Penny's needs were because she could tell him. Jacob did try to tell their foster families about how he can hear what she says but most people dismissed it as a twin thing, some sort of twin connection. The twins were not able to figure out how they could talk to each other, they just knew they were special somehow, but they didn't know how special they really were.